Twin Future
by LLyNnS
Summary: Harry's fed up. Not wanting to stay the Wizarding World's sacrificial lamb, he flees from the Dursley and decide to kill the Boy-Who-Lived, taking his life in his own hands. Pranks, adventures, upheavals and even a revolution ? Beware the Twins ! FW/HP/GW
1. Chapter 1 : A Saturday Night, mid June

**I took the idea of the story from Aikawa Akihiko's «Little Eleanor». I rewrote it almost entirely and I intend to finish it. I was so anxious from the rest of the story, but her's only a few chapters long. Please, go read her work !**

"**Twin Future"**

**Chapter One**

Harry clutched his wand in his trembling hand. Whether the trembling was from the hunger that gnawed his insides, the pains his body hosted courtesy of his relatives, or the howling wind that pelted torrent of freezing rain on his head, he couldn't say.

Harry wasn't feeling very coherent at the moment. It was only the third week he had spent at the Dursley's. He refused to call them «family» or their house «home». Fleeting thoughts raced through his head. Famous quotes and sayings about home. Harry had no opinion on the validity of these sentences. His life had offered him little to no concrete example of home. _Hogwart, maybe ? The Burrow ?_ For a moment, he felt the ghost sensation of wool against his skin. It was only a delusion of his feverish mind however. His Weasley jumpers were in the cupboard under the stairs at the Dursley's. Pain licked his mind again.

The shadows danced with the wind, making fantastic shapes. He thought of grims, of Sirius, of falling. _Curtains fluttering around the ark, moved by the murmurs of the dead. It lead to Grimmaud place._ He shied away from this thought.

He ran. All he had was his wand and his determination. He couldn't stay with his relatives any more. With the news of Sirius's death, their hate had blossomed. They took very little pain to hide what they were doing from outsiders. The story of his imbalance was firmly established in the neighborhood, and nobody reacted to the sight of the slight boy from number 4, Privet Drive with bloody gashes or dark bruises. His list of chores had become so long, it was impossible to finish, therefore leading to regular beatings and very little food and drink.

He would probably die if he stayed any longer. Mentally, he was close to the edge. Physically, he was mostly numb, a sign that his magic was the only thing that kept him going, he knew. So, when aunt Petunia had decreed that he would spend the night outside, as a punishment for his failure to properly paint the fence, he had stood, frozen. The fact that his cousin Dudley had spilled the paint right in front of his mother a few seconds earlier was probably the last straw. He stood still until the dusk vanished under dark clouds. The storm began with a howling wind, then the rain came, heavy and cold.

Harry took a look around. He had ran some way, but between the dark of the night and his dizzying exhaustion, he didn't recognize the place. He tried to needed shelter.A place to think. Somewhere dry, warm, where he could sleep, eat and care for his injuries. He didn't think anything was broken, but he was pretty sure even his bones had bruises._ And, how was it called ? _He had heard Pomfrey speak of something like it._ Something with hair. It was hard to concentrate. Hair...Hairline...Hairline fractures!_

_Anyway. _He had his wand. He was too young to do magic in a muggle neighborhood without the Ministry breaking his wand. He didn't want people to be able to find him, either._ So no magic, as magic would activate The Trace. _McGonagall had warned him about it after First Year._ It was useless! Just a powerless twig! _Harry raised his wand above his head in an angry movement, as if to throw it.

BANG!

As soon as the wand had risen above his shoulder, before he could throw it away in anger, a large, purple, triple decked bus appeared in an awful racket. _The Knight Bus!_ Harry was suddenly thankful and mumbled an apology to his holly wand under his breath. As the purple blur zoomed closer, Harry began to panic. His face was swollen and he couldn't see very well. No one would recognize him, but he had no money!

He heard the cherry voice of Stan Shunpike say something he couldn't distinguish over the howling of the wind. Harry took small, slow steps towards the bright rectangle he assumed was the door. He didn't know what to say or where to go. Even with his slow gait, he arrived near the light much too soon for his liking. Choked exclamations and questions greeted him. He mumbled something about being mobbed. Pitying noises were heard. A hand took his elbow and led him to one of the bed. As soon as he touched the soft bedding, he passed out.

Harry came to consciousness painfully, as someone shook his shoulder. The shaking awoke each and every one of his hurts in a cascade of pain. He thought Stan's voice said something about the Leaky Cauldron. Harry tried to blink. As his eyes were mostly swollen shut, he wasn't very successful.

«Oy! Lad! Do you get off in Diagon Alley ? Oy?»

It seemed that Harry attempt to nod was understood, as, again, he felt a hand take his elbow and lead him before a stone archway. With another bang, he was left alone and swaying in the night. Harry had still only his wand but it seemed his short bout of unconsciousness (_well, he assumed it had been short, but it could have been several hours, for all he knew_) had left his mind marginally clearer, now that he had re-acclimated himself to the pain.

Leaning against the stonework separating Diagon Alley from the Leaking Cauldron, he tried to come up with a plan. _Where to go ? _He was still so tired...he didn't fell up to a long walk or long explanations._ That left Dumbledore out. _He was still mad at the twinkling old goat. Between Sirius, the Prophecy and his insistence that he returns to the Dursley's, his general high-handed attitude in regard to others's life, particularly his own, he felt that his resentment was more than justified._ So that excluded every adult from the Order too. _He had no money to take a room at The Leaky Cauldron. And he needed a good plan, if he was to really escape Dumbledore's influence and his relatives.

_His friends ? _Hermione would go directly to Dumbledore, even if he asked her not to, assuming that she knew best. Ron would involve his parents and they, too, would go to the meddling old coat. He had no idea of where Neville was living, but he knew that his Gran was very strict and therefore unlikely to put up with a underage, runaway wizarding celebrity. Plus, there was the fact that he lead her grandson on a fool quest to break in the department of Mysteries, where he was injured. Luna lived too close to the Weasley, even if she would probably hide him if he asked.

Harry closed his achy eyelids did that left him ? He was in Diagon Alley._ What was in Diagon Alley except shops ? Shops...the Bank...shops...Yes! The twin's Shop!_ With a surge of enthusiasm, Harry gathered his last forces and stood up slowly. He was sure that the Twins would welcome him, heal him, and even hide him if he asked. _They had no particular respect for authority, even Dumbledore's. They were devious. They were evil geniuses pranksters and saw the irony in every situation! They thought differe_n_tly from everybody else! They were all for poetic justice, the weirder, the better ! If there was someone who wouldn't go to Dumbledore and who had the resources to help him, it was Gred and Forge! Hopefully, they would treat it as a challenge..._Harry had a profound respect for the twins, and he sincerely liked them. He knew they were genuine and had a certain fondness for him, a fact that flattered him slightly. _Okay, more than slightly, but...well, they WERE in a class of their own !_

As Harry's mind continued to ramble madly, his legs had taken him closer and closer to Weasley's Wizarding Wheezes. It was late at night, or very early in the morning, and under the dark night sky, the usually busy streets were desolate. Unseen, he arrived at his destination, 93 Diagon Alley.

The store windows of Weasley's Wizard Wheezes were dark, the store having been long closed for the night. Above the store, lights shown through the windows of the small flat that housed the store owners, indicating the occupants were still awake.

Harry had come to the only two people he knew that he thought would help him over the cause of the Light, Fred and George Weasley. The eternal pranksters would never snitch on him, and would only be too happy to help him out. They, more than anyone in the Weasley clan, were fiercely protective of him. Harry didn't know if it was because he had given them his thousand galleons winnings of the Tri-Wizard Tournament to start their store. But he liked to think that it wasn't the only reason they had taken him under their wings. They were always friends, but the three had grown to be close, especially after Ron had deserted him in a bout of jealousy two years ago. He had missed them after their grand exit from Hogwart. They brought depth and levity to his life. And they kept him on his toes, more than anyone else ever had.

Harry half-knocked, half-collapsed on the door and waited, trembling with the cold. The door swung open to reveal the curious face of Fred, who stood in the doorway, clad only in navy blue pajama bottoms and clutching his red house robe close to fend off to the cool stormy night. The opening of the door, although not unexpected, made him stumble past the threshold, his balance lost. As the light from the inside spilled to illuminate Harry's form, he closed his eyes against the glow. He prayed that the Twins would recognize him. He knew they were cautious since the return of Voldemort and he didn't fancy being at the end of the prankster's wands.

"Harry?" Fred asked, opening the door fully. «Is that you ? What are you doing here, mate? And at this hour? What happened to you ?" Harry slumped in relief at the fast paced questioning. Fred guided him further inside instantly, closing the door. Harry stepped into the warm entrance way, rubbing his hands over his arms, covered only by his overlarge and threadbare t-shirt. His clothes were soaked through and he dripped on the well-worn wood flooring. The temperature began to warm slightly, the warmth of Fred, close-by, warring with his chilled skin. He could tell the pain would be back soon, as soon as the numbing cold would retreat.

Harry limped inside of the shop completely and Fred reacted instantaneously, catching him and holding him against his side. Footsteps resounded, coming from above, and suddenly, George was descending the stairway, clad only in his pajama bottoms, his muscled chest on a wasted display, as Harry was almost blind.

«Hey, Har...» He gasped as he took sight of the drenched black and blue boy next to his twin. «Harry, what happened ? How badly are you hurt ?» he charged down the stairs and wrapped his arm around the thin boy's shoulders. His loud exclamation made Fred react. He stopped gawking at the sight the waif-like boy made and turned to his brother. «Let's get him upstairs. He's wet through and through. Cold too.»

Harry let himself be led. He was at the end of his rope. He had only the strength to mumble short explanations before falling unconscious once more. The benefits of his rest on the Knight Bus were disappearing fast; «Dursley's doing... Wanted to... escape... .never going back again...have to hide...Order...Dumbles ..have ... to ...disappear...»Then, with the end of his strength "Pl...Please...kill...Boy-Who...Lived". His whisper was barely heard above the loud patter of the falling rain. His body went limp between the twin's. He left them staring at each other, dazed, incapable to react for a few minutes.

Fred and George had heard about Harry's awful muggle family before, but without prior experience with abused friends and with Harry's silence on the subject, they had figured, like most, that Dumbledore would not have left anybody in a really bad place, lest of all the Boy-Who-Lived. They were painfully disappointed and not a little mad with the Headmaster. As they began to ask themselves how bad it had been and why nobody had ever questioned the decision to send Harry back to the Dursley (Surely, Ron and Hermione, at least, had to know. And hadn't they, themselves, told their parents before Harry's second year that he was imprisoned in his own bedroom?) Before they could begin to suspect something nefarious, like, perhaps they knew but left him there anyway for some reason, they realized that they were the only thing holding up the body of their unconscious friend.

«Come on, George, let's get him upstairs and warmed up. Do we have enough healing draughts to help him ?». At his brother query, George shook himself from his whirlwind of questions, doubts and self-recrimination. He scooped Harry up and began carrying him upstairs. He entered their small but cozy living room and carefully deposed the battered body on their old leather couch. Quickly crossing the space between the small table and the two armchair, he went to lit the fireplace, taking care to block the Floo's access completely. Turning back to Harry, he found that Fred had not been idle. All of their stock of healing pastes and potions was spread on the living room coffee table, and Fred was already in the small kitchen, warming water. Seeing that, he hurried to the bathroom, snatching towels to try and dry their friend.

As George emerged back from their bedroom, he saw that Fred was on his knees beside the sofa, gently divesting Harry's hurt body of his drenched rags and cleaning the blood he came across with the warm water. Pausing for a second to calm himself, he tried to understand what happened since Harry appeared. It was only a few minute ago, but George could confusedly perceive the life-altering quality of the moment. Too worried to think clearly about anything other that Harry's state, he couldn't, nevertheless, shake this feeling : their life was about to change radically. And he knew, as he came beside the sofa to help Fred, that his twin was probably feeling this too. Reasoning that no change brought to them by Harry would be worth regretting, anyway, he resolved to move forward.

His last reflexion dissolved itself as he concentrated on applying bruise salve, wrapping Harry in towels, making him swallow one healing potion after another : regenerative draught for his magic, Skelegro for his fragile bones, pain potion, restorative and so on and so forth. They were fairly well stocked. They had to, with all the experimental pranking and the product-testing. But even then, they lacked resources to deal with injuries of this magnitude. Then, there was the consequences of the neglect. Dressed, Harry seemed very slight and thin. But, there, naked on their living room's sofa, he appeared as he was in reality : a famished teenager, skinny and pale, all nervous muscles and delicate bones, and very small for a fifteen year old. They finished wrapping the healing body in a plaid and cast a warming charm.

«No fever so far, said Fred, we're lucky. With the amount of time he probably spent under this fucking freezing shower, I fully expected him to be ill on top of the rest. We'll have to go buy potions ingredient. He seems mainly exhausted, but I would prefer to have Pimentine on hand, just in case. Plus some Nutrient Potions to help him put some weight on. And Appetite Enhancers to deal with the rest...do you think he needs a healer ? » He didn't have to hear his brother's response to know that he agreed with his line of reasoning. The twins exchanged a grave look, their serious faces a mirror of their somber mood. The relief they felt at the fact that Harry's injuries were not life threatening was tempered by the only words they heard from him since his dramatic arrival.

Slowly, still a little dazed from the quick string of events, they looked around their flat, half amazed that their surroundings could stay so benign and familiar when things were spinning so out of control. Their flat was still small, the open space of the sitting room -living room still littered with various potions ingredients, half finished pranks and experiments, colorful papers and notes in a joyous chaos. The kitchen was still a half cooking-half potion lab space, their bedroom still a mess, clothes thrown carelessly all around the double bed and in the hallway to the bathroom. They slept together, since there wasn't enough space for two bed.

At the same slow pace, the twins brought the recovering boy to their bed and arranged him in the middle of the covers. They manipulated his limbs with the utmost care, as if a quick movement could break him. They stood on each side of him for a long moment, contemplating the sight that Harry made in the middle of their bedroom, surrounded by their stuff. It gave them a peculiar feeling.

Still contemplating, the twins seated themselves and began to tenderly stroke Harry's dark curls, his face, his shoulders. «It's a good thing that he was sleeping, he's so shy we would probably had to fight him if he knew he had to let us see him naked.» murmured Fred. «True. Too true, brother of mine. Do you have any idea of how we could make him disappear ?... He IS rather like a bird in a golden cage. Awfully monitored for a not-so-golden cage, after all. Little Ronickins would probably stop being jealous if he could see him now.» George asked after a moment.

Suddenly, the Twins were feeling a familiar surge of excitation at the challenge they faced : they had to fool not only Albus Dumbledore, but the entire Wizarding World into thinking the Boy-Who-Lived had disappeared definitely. Life with Harry would never be dull, that's for sure ! As far as they were concerned, this would probably be THE biggest prank they could ever play. The fact that they would do it at the request of the heir of the Marauder, the same one who helped them and encouraged to build their pranking business, only made it better. The icing on the cake would be the revenge they would add on the muggles who made the life of their friend hell. With truly disturbing grins, the Twins began whispering excitedly above Harry.

A lot of wand-waving, four transplanages, a few illegal magic and a truly heroic battle with muggle technology later, Fred and George Weasley crawled back to their bedroom, locked their flat and snuggled under their covers on either side of Harry. Thank god today was a Sunday!


	2. Chapter 2 : Sunday, the 22th of June

**Chapter Two**

Harry woke rather late on Sunday morning. He was sandwiched between two strong chests, wrapped tightly in warmth and his body wasn't hurting. He relaxed and tried to go back to sleep but quickly encountered several obstacles. He was very hungry. His stomach was growling like a bear after hibernation. But he was tangled and cuddled between two hard, heavy bodies and a whole battalion of soft blankets who had apparently decided that he would stay in bed. The feeling was entirely too weird and agreeable. And new. For someone who had never been hugged by anyone before his twelfth year and whose sole positive human touch had come after traumatic experiences, invariably and quickly followed by medical attention and a stern dressing down, the concept of enjoyable human contact was a little "out there".

As far as he could see, his head was pillowed on Fred's muscled shoulder, and George's fiery locks were tickling his nose and the back on his neck. Their arms were entangled around his torso and their legs were doing their best impersonation of a spaghetti's dish. He was caught.

And naked ! While the Twins had at least a pajama bottom, he was completely bare! This realization led to several others, introducing him to a whole new level of weirdness. To say that Harry was completely out of his depth would by like talking about the mild warmth of hell's inferno. One of George's hand was curled in his pubic hair. There was one hard thing poking the inside of his thigh and another nestled between his arse cheeks. The fabric of the pajama was soft with use and therefore VERY thin and he could feel the heat of the Twin's morning erections throbbing against his skin. His consciousness reduced itself to this two burning spots. It was as if the scorch branded him.

Harry could feel himself reacting, his cock pulsing in response. Admittedly, Harry hadn't had a whole lot of time to himself lately. And he had had to live all his life with many expectations, often contradictory. That's why, contrary to the majority of teenagers everywhere, he had never really encountered the need to question his sexuality. He had only vague idea of what sex could be, how it was done. He never had any opportunities to be curious, even less to sate any curiosity. Obviously, he was quickly making up for lost time.

He was also pretty sure that he was currently trying to self-combust, because, clearly, he couldn't be blushing harder. At least, that was what Harry was thinking. He couldn't begin to disentangle his feelings. There was shame, embarrassment, excitation, curiosity and a few others, all churning violently in his stomach. And he proved himself wrong as the Twins began to stir, to move and to wake. Half-awake, Fred and George reacted to the soft skin of the body they were embracing. Their hips began to trust languidly, rutting against two tights, rubbing between the boy's rounded globes. Hands began to twitch and fingertips to caress. Harry was now sure that he was self combusting, or, at least, loosing his head. The experience was so new, so encompassing, that it was impossible to comprehend for him. His head and the rest of his body were floating away in opposing directions in a haze of confused feelings and sensations.

Then he mewled.

The sound was so unexpected, it woke the Twins completely. «Oh, morning, Harry» George huffed a deep breath on the side of Harry's neck as he became more aware. «You feel delicious.»

Fred, roused by his brother's voice, stretched slowly and ran his hands on the body next to him. «Hmmm...Morning.» He said sleepily, even as his body continued to move against Harry's. «...are you gonna come, Harry ?» The Twin turned lazily to face the shamefaced boy in their bed, still teasing. «It's okay, you know. We wanted you to spend a _good _night, anyway.» George grinned.

Turning serious, Fred propped himself on his elbow to look down at the smaller boy. Running his hands over Harry's thin chest he asked «How do you feel, Harry ?» His hands smoothed up to cup his cheek and stroke it lightly with his thumb. « Any more pain ?» As he questioned the slight boy, he could feel George examining Harry's body and followed his example.

The teenager was truly a vision in the morning light : the rumpled hair, the flush that was slowly spreading to his chest, his thinness accentuating the delicateness of his features. He looked almost ethereal against their sturdy bodies. The contrast was adorable and the Twins could barely refrain from ravishing him.

"I'm okay now. Thanks. I'm just a little tired, still. And very, very hungry."Harry answered shyly, still a little disconcerted by his wake-up call but deciding to ignore it for the time being. Nevertheless, he was feeling much more coherent than last night. He hoped he would be able to stay awake for a whole conversation. "Right, said Fred, turning towards their bedside table, you'll have to wait a little while more, because we have to brew you several potions before you eat anything. Otherwise, you probably won't be able to keep it down." Harry nodded and took the mug of water Fred was offering.

Propping himself up slightly, he looked over at George, who was resting his chin on the arm he had laid over the boy's stomach. "So, I take it, you're staying for the summer ?" George felt that the sooner they began planning the better, but he also wanted to be certain that Harry was okay with whatever they decided. The Twins knew that he had had very little say in the directing of his own life and that was one of the things they were determined to change. They had to know what Harry wanted to do before they presented him with his options. Plus, he still didn't know what they had done last night.

Harry frowned down at him and up at Fred. He looked very unsure and cute as he answered. "Umm, I was kinda hoping...I mean if it wouldn't be a bother. I know the shop is still new. But I don't really have anywhere else to go. Anyone else will tell Dumbledore, and he will just send me back."As he continued to talk, he could feel himself begin a full fledged rant. "I don't want to go back! Ever. I'm really tired of everyone treating me like shit and still expecting me to save the world in the end. Nobody tell me anything, then I screw up and everyone is on my back again !" His chest was heaving. He stopped himself only because he saw George suddenly shot up and lean above him. "Dumbledore knew about this ? About how they treated you ? And he still made you go back ?" He was furious. Sure, the Twins had suspected last night, but hearing it confirmed from Harry himself was another thing entirely.

Harry lowered his eyes to his lap and nervously played with the sheet gathered around his hips. He was embarrassed by what his family did to him. The feeling of helplessness, of worthlessness was made worse by the image the Wizarding World forced on him. The Boy-Who-Lived wasn't strong enough to stop his muggle relatives from abusing him. Some kind of hero ! He nodded brokenly to George's question. And suddenly, Fred was there, beside him, hugging him to his warm chest. And George was holding his hands and petting his head. It was still weird and new. But Harry thought that he would probably get used to the nice touches too easily and would crave them something fierce when they stopped coming."Well, of course, you can stay, Harry. Come on, we will make breakfast, potions and we'll tell you what we did last night after we patched you up."

"Yeah, don't worry, Harry, Fred added, we have the start of a plan. The details and the rest, we will decide together if you give the Potter's stamp of approval." He stood up, pulling Harry with him and wrapping him in the sheet. George was dressing himself. "I'm just going to run to the Apothecary real quick, okay ? I'll be back by the time you have breakfast finished." He winked at Harry and took off jogging down the stairs.

Still a little bewildered, Harry couldn't help protesting "That's okay! You don't need to! George!" But George was already gone. He turned to Fred. "You don't have to! I don't want to bother you so much! I mean, I can help with the shop for the summer. I can help cooking and cleaning the flat, anything, really!" He was beginning to work himself in a state, still following Fred to the kitchen, thinking that if he burdened the twins to much he would probably have to leave sooner.

"Okay, okay, Harry, calm down, all right? Of course, we would welcome any help you can give us. But we already have Ron helping with the shop this summer, so there's no hurry, okay ? And before you begin to panic again, he's not going to come till Tuesday. Because Mondays are inventory days." Fred was soothingly rubbing his back, and Harry suddenly felt ashamed, again. His reactions were following his emotional state. That is to say, he was as calm a the ocean on a windy day and his moods were following the tide.

By the time Harry was mostly calm again, Fred was done with breakfast and George had come back. The Twins made Harry take potions and eat. For a little while, silence reigned and Harry felt his tenseness leave. The Twin shooed him to the bathroom after breakfast and rather quickly, they were all settled in the leaving room sofa, Harry still wrapped in the sheet, as the Twin refused to give him back his hand-me-down. Surprisingly, he didn't really care. He was warm, his tummy was full, he didn't hurt any more and he was very comfortably snuggled between his friends.

Fred cleared his throat and began thusly. "Harry, last night, we were pretty sure that you wanted the Boy-Who-Lived to disappear. So Forge and I took it upon ourselves to make it happen."

"you know us, we couldn't resist playing a prank of this magnitude..."George chimed in.

"...Right! A once in a lifetime opportunity!"

"Thank you for that, by the way!"

At the familiar style of narration, Harry could feel himself beaming. It was incredibly comforting to see Gred and Forge again. He knew he had been right to trust them ! Their ping-pong retelling of last night events made him feel safe like never before. The insanity that was purely Fred and George was weaving an impenetrable security blanket around him.

As the story went on, Harry found himself amazed anew by the two evil pranking geniuses. They had apparently made a replica of him, down to the injuries, animated it as a golem, transferred all magic attached to him to the clone, using some of his blood. Here, Harry interrupted them, frantic, "but what about my mother's blood protection ? Did you transfer that too ?"

"We're not sure, the twins answered, a bit sheepish, Because it's unusual magic, and because Voldemort's use of your blood to resurrect himself, we don't know how much protection remained, to begin with. But we think that, as this is based on the intent of your mother, on her will, whatever magic there is, it will always be with you."

"Oh! Yes, it makes sense, I suppose." Again, Harry found himself amazed. The nice feeling of warmth was back with a vengeance. _It's good to have people answering questions honestly, at last!_ The thought was fleeting, rapidly changing itself into profound gratitude for the Twins. They continued to tell their tale, interrupting one another. They had send the replica golem back to the Dursley's, so that whatever Harry decided to do, he wouldn't be immediately missed. They had picked the locks, brought the golem to his room and made a quick search for his things. They only took a few mementos, like his photo album of his parents, his broom from Sirius, the Marauder's map and his Father's invisibility cloak, transfiguring replicas. They didn't want to attract attention. They explained that they had ideas, but that they didn't do anything else because they wanted to have his opinion on any plans they would make. Fred added that the only constraint left was that the golem wouldn't stay animated for more than two week before he "died". But that there would need to wait for a year for him to loose its form. So if the police were to perform an autopsy, they wouldn't find anything amiss.

The Twin's plan was to spend the next two week to build Harry a new life and a new identity, then to phone the police anonymously, saying that the young boy from number four Privet Drive hadn't be seen outside for a while, but that they suspected abuse and were now fearing for his life. Hopefully, by the time the wizards reacted, they would be too many muggles involved to consider obliviating them all and Harry Potter would be declared dead.

"So, you see, above all, we wanted to know if you want to disappear forever or if you want to able to resurrect sometime. Do you want to stay in England ? What do you want to do, Harry?"

By this time, to say that Harry was enthusiast, was like saying that ice was cool. His head was spinning with all the opportunities before him. He was hugging Fred then George, babbling thank you over and over. The Twins were laughing, happy to see their friend so crazy. The whole thing degenerated in a tickling battle that left them in a breathless heap on the living room floor. Harry was pensive for a moment, before saying shyly : "Well, I would still prefer to stay with you and help you, if that's okay ? I have no idea of disguise that would work. But we could say I'm a muggleborn friend from an orphanage. I can't pass for a pureblood, anyway. You are helping me support myself while a study for my OWL and NEWT independently." He lifted his head to look at the twin's reaction, still twisting the sheet between his hands nervously.

They were beaming. "We were hoping you would say that Harry..."began Fred. "Because, you see, we HAVE a excellent idea for your disguise. And we'd had it for a LONG, LONG time..." said George. Their grins were devilish. Harry could tell that whatever their idea, it would be brilliant, unexpected and probably embarrassing (mainly for him). He found he didn't really care. He was too happy to worry about that. The taste of freedom had made him almost delirious.

"You see, Harry, this disguise, it must cover your scar...change yourself completely...be easy to maintain and impossible to endanger...so no magical Glamour...it has to be comfortable...because it will become more that just a disguise...you will have to spend all your time wearing it..." The rapid fire description was renforced by a intense scrutiny and Harry could feel himself blushing again, still twisting his fingers in the sheet. Suddenly, Fred perked up, inspired by the adorable picture his guest was offering. His gaze took on a piercing look before swinging to his brother. George took one look at his brother face and knew what he was thinking. He looked appraisingly at the small boy standing in front of them and smiled. "Oh, right, that's perfect!" As one, the Twins raised their wands and cast several glamour and transfiguration spells.

Harry closed his eyes and felt the tingle of magic all over his body, his scalp felt itchy. When he opened his eyes, Fred and George were gaping at him. "We are bloody brilliant, we are!" "Right geniuses." Before Harry could react to the cold air he suddenly felt on unexpected areas of his body (like his chest and legs) or the weight that pulled at his head, the twins grabbed hold of each of his shoulders and pushed him in front of the full length mirror in the bedroom. The three of them stood frozen before Harry's reflection, the Twins detailing their hard work with a proud and proprietary eye, while Harry squeaked in surprise.

The sheet had been transfigured into a short mint green dress. The fabric was a bit thick but very supple. The dress had short puffed sleeves and a low cut neckline that made his collarbone, neck and arms seem even more delicate. The impression was reinforced by the white lace ruffles that lined both the sleeves and neckline. His waist looked tiny cinched as it was with a wide dark green ribbon that was tied in a bow at the small of his back. The hemline was also lined with the white lace ruffles of a petticoat and Harry blushed bright red, tugging at the fabric that only reached the middle of his thighs. Below that, pale green silk stockings were pulled up above his knees with dark green lace tops, leaving a tempting patch of pale thigh revealed above them. He stood balanced on dark green one inch Mary Jane heels tied with small bows.

Harry looked up and saw that he had long hair tied with minty green ribbons, holding his bangs on his forehead and the rest of his long curls in a ponytail, hiding his scar and revealing the nape of his neck. More green ribbons were tied with pretty bows to his wrist and neck, probably to hide his Adam apple. He was feeling a little shell-shocked. Especially since he found himself attractive. But that could have been the looks the Twins were giving him. He tried to shake his head but became instantaneously distracted with the movement of his soft curls bouncing around his face. He could feel the long and heavy curls of the ponytail brushing the swell of his arse. The sensations of being in this outfit were disconcerting, probably because, more than anything, it wasn't uncomfortable. Harry was lost.

"Well, Harry, what do you think ? Pretty good, right ?" Fred asked, smiling as he ran his fingers through the new length of Harry's hair. "I'm dressed as a girl!"Harry yelled, his embarrassment overpowering his shock for a second. "You sure are, Beautiful." George smiles cheekily. "But now, no one will ever see you and think "Boy-Who-Lived"!".

"Well...," Harry considered, "Um, I guess so. It's not so bad." He squirmed a bit, cocking his head to the side in a cute unconscious movement. "Did...Did you guys transfigure me some underwear, too ?" Curious, he lifted the skirts of his dress and petticoat to reveal white silk and lace panties. They were a bit too small and barely covered his cock. He could feel that they barely covered his ass, too. Each movement, no matter how small, was causing the silk to rub against his sensitive skin in a smooth, cool caress. The twins smiled widely. "Well, you can't go around commando, can you ?" George asked. "It's really important that your disguise be real down to the smallest details. It will help put yourself in the right frame of mind." He insisted, a little deviously. "Besides, they feel good, don't they ?" Fred snickered when he snapped the elastic band at his waist causing Harry to jump at the sensation. "Yeah, they really do...They're soft. I'm not used to so much softness." Harry said shyly, rubbing his thighs together. He was completely absorbed in the feel of his new clothes and missed the look Fred and George shared above his head.

The sound of the twin's throats clearing pulled Harry from his contemplation of the mirror. "So, Harry, what do you say, do you feel like keeping this disguise ?" Pensive, Harry looked back at his reflection. He took a step or two closer to the mirror, cocked his head, took two steps back, twirled around a bit, and finally looked back to the twins with determination on his face. "Yeah, I'll do it. It's a good idea, but it won't be easy. I'll have to work really hard and probably research, too, how to be a proper girl." The Twins shared another victorious look before turning to Harry and exclaiming together "Don't worry ! We'll be there to help you all the way!"


	3. Chapter 3 : Sunday Afternoon

**Chapter Three**

"Now, Harry, there's a few details we have to fix before going outside. Your eyes. You can buy a potion to fix them at the Apothecary in Knockturn Alley, but it'll hurt a lot. Or we can transfigure your glasses. We'll have to go back to the Apothecary to buy a growth potion for your hair, because all the changes the spells caused are temporary, and only last a few hours, 'till the end of the afternoon."George explained. "But, the most important thing right now is changing your wand. This one is almost as famous as you are. So we will need to go to Knockturn Alley anyway." Fred added. "You're still okay, Harry ?" The boy seemed to have become absorbed in his thoughts again.

"Yeah...Yeah, I think I'll be alright." Harry answered hesitantly. "It's just...I have no idea how to be a girl, you know ? Plus there's the problem of my scar. Even if I hide it under my bangs, it would only take a little wind for it to be revealed...Could we make a stop to Flourish and Bott ? They're bound to have books on cosmetics charms that will be useful. Plus it could be great prank material, right ?" By now, the Twins were beaming, happy to see Harry become more confident and involved. And no, of course, their smiles had nothing to do with the swaying movements Harry's bounces gave to his dress and petticoat, reveling more skin above the lacy top of his stockings. Still contemplating, the twins were slow to react as Harry continued to gush "Yeah! And we should go to muggle London, too! I could use muggle make-up on the scar, and dye for my hair color and colored contact lenses! Plus it could be a relatively safe way to train myself to act like a correct girl and you could snoop around for muggle -related pranks! What do you think ?"

Harry finally turned around to see the twins smiling so widely, they had to be hurting. "Oh! Well, it was...it was just a thought ?... hum...Guys ? ...say something?" Harry was beginning to feel a little nervous as the twins were slowly but surely coming closer, their smile predatory. "Honey! We're keeping you! You're a gift from heaven!" George exclaimed as he pounced on the slighter boy to hug him. "Beautiful, you just found us at least two more series of products in less than two minutes! You're our goddess!" Fred gushed while petting Harry's hair and skin, everywhere it wasn't smothered by his brother's hug. "Let's go!" he shouted with great enthusiasm, ignoring the weak protest of the small flushed boy.

Harry walked hesitantly between the two taller twins. Fred had taken his arm in his own and was escorting him down the main street as if he was a real lady. Which, Harry recognized, he had better get accustomed to be. George was strolling along on his other side, whistling and nodding greetings to the Alley's fellow shoppers. Most of the others shops were open, but the Twins had explained that, as they were only two employees, they had to close for two days, to refurnish their stock and try to invent new products. Harry peaked shyly around the twins every so often to see the bustling street, worried that he might somehow be recognized.

Fred, noticing his nervousness, patted his smaller hand where it rested on his forearm and smiled warmly at him. George, catching on, winked at Harry, saying teasingly "Mind your posture, young lady!" Harry gave a shy smile in response and threw his shoulders back, standing proudly, confident that nothing bad could happen while he was with the Twins. To try and forget completely his nervousness, Harry concentrated instead on the steady clacking rhythm of his new heeled shoes on the cobble stone street. He felt light and airy in his new clothes. He enjoyed the feelings his dress, petticoats and ribbons were creating on his skin, dancing with each step he took. The strange sensation of wind on his legs and chest left him feeling exposed, yet Harry could not deny the vulnerability they generated made him feel stylish and appealing for the first time in his life. It was a heady feeling, and the looks he got from the twins since they had dressed him heightened his confidence. "Yes, he thought, I can stand being a girl on a regular basis, if it's what it feels like!"

George had decided that Harry looked good enough to eat in his disguise. He was overjoyed, thinking that this sight would become an everyday occurrence. Harry looked completely natural. The light minty green dress accentuated the iridescence of his bright green eyes, while the cascade of black waves contrasted beautifully with his honeyed skin. The hours in the garden of the Dursley had given him sunburns, but the healing from the night before had transformed them in this delicious golden tan. With each step, the short green heels caused the slight swell of his hips to sway, a sight that hypnotized George almost as much as the dance of the lace on the hemline of the dress, which tantalized him with a hint of a peak in forbidden territory.

"Hello, boys ! How are you in this fine day ?" someone bellowed from up ahead, interrupting George's lust filled daze. A friendly looking witch with messy blond hair that fell to her ample bosom and garish tangerine colored robes waved at them as she exited Flourish and Blotts with an armful of books.

"Greetings, Madame Potage!" the twins greeted the woman in unison and bowed politely. Harry recognized the name. "She must be the owner of Potage's Cauldron Shop" he thought. The nervousness was back. This encounter was his first test : would he be able to pass for a woman ?

"It's been a wonderful morning!" answered George very honestly, thinking back. He couldn't help smiling smugly. "Made only better by seeing your lovely face!" charmed Fred, whose thought were following the same track than his brother's. This was probably why the question that came next took them completely by surprise.

"Well, well, and who's this lovely little darling ?" Madame Potage inquired. Seeing the twins dumbstruck, Harry gave a blushing little wave to the friendly woman. "Oh, they're my employers. We, huu, we're friends. You see, I'm from a muggle orphanage, so the twins were kind enough to employ me. I study by myself to pass my OWLs and NEWTs. They're showing me the Alley before I begin to work."

"I see, I see" Madame Potage smiled kindly at Harry "So they're your knights in shiny armor, these two, hum ?" Harry felt himself flush. He knew she was only teasing, but she was close enough to the truth to make him embarrassed. "What's your name, sweetheart ?"

Harry felt himself panic. They had made wonderful plans, but they had forgotten to think of a name. How could they have been so stupid ? "I...Oh...That's to say... sorry...I can't believe I forgot to introduce myself!...everything so new, you see...I'm...Hum...I'm a little lost.." Harry's flush turned darker as he stammered, trying desperately to think of a name.

"Oh! Sorry, Madame Potage! She's real shy, you see. She get flustered easily."Fred interrupted quickly, buying Harry time. "Right, that is ! Every single time that happen, she's always going on and getting lost in her sentences."George added, for reinforcement. Meanwhile, Harry was glancing about him for any kind of inspiration. It has to be a name he could like. His eyes landed on the pile of books in the older woman's arms. He cleared his throat as he read the title of the top most one Exploding Cauldrons : Tales of Pioneers in the Art of Potions Making by Eleanor Arbuthnot. "Right. Sorry. I'm Eleanor. Eleanor Sade. Pleased to meet you, Madame."

"Likewise, Eleanor."Madame Potage said, before turning back to the boys. "Well, I must be off. No telling how the store is doing. Leaving it in the hands of my dear husband can be quite a hazardous venture, as you know." She nodded a goodbye and trotted off down the Alley. Harry sagged in Fred's hold, getting a squeeze in return, relieved to have survived his first encounter. "Not even five minutes outside and we almost blew it!" George chuckled and wrapped an arm around Harry's thin waist, pulling him against his side. "That's proof you don't need to worry! You were brilliant. And you know, your beloved knights would never let anything happen to you!" Harry smiled sweetly up at the redhead, hugged his waist, before pulling back, still smiling, punching him in the shoulder and recapturing Fred's arm to continue their journey down the road.

The trio arrived in front of the large temple-like building that was Gringott's. The enormous bronze doors were still guarded by an intimidating guard in full armor. Harry had insisted their first stop be the wizarding bank. After years of verbal abuse, he felt the profound need to prove himself. He would NOT be a burden to the twins. He had adamantly argued until he won the argument by saying that they would need to inform the Goblins of their prank, even if only to insure they didn't contradict the news of his death or give his money to the wrong person. Above all, however, Harry was curious. He never had any time to discuss with Goblins or to ask about his finances. So he would take the time today.

The lobby was relatively empty, and very few of the stalls of the long counter were occupied. Harry's shoes clacked on the marble floor as he made his way to an open and isolated stall. He had the time to give a small bow, but before he could utter a greeting, the goblin behind the counter snapped "Yes?".

"Uh. Good day...Smartaxe."The name was on a small wooden panel on the counter. "I would like to meet with the goblin in charge of my account, if that's possible for him, please." As he was talking, Harry rummaged through the small velvet pouch in his hand (a transfigured towel) and finally extracted his vault key. "I also would like to make a withdrawal, sir, Vault 687." He said quietly, hoping to not attract attention. The goblin raised an eyebrow as he took the key from the young girl who was surprisingly polite and looked at him with beseeching large green eyes. The key and vault number were that of the last's Potter, but this was obviously not Harry Potter. Smartaxe took the key and jumped down from his stool, his face impassible. The protocol in this case was clear.

Harry took the hands of the Twins in his slightly trembling ones and lead them behind the goblin. They entered a long hallway lined on either side with doors that seemed to go on forever. At some indistinct signal, the goblin opened a door and lead them into an ornate office. The walls were carved rock with a few tapestries of goblins battles. They sat in the lush chair in front of the gigantic desk that took almost all the space of the office. The overall feeling was very intimidating, which was probably the point of the whole set-up, thought Harry. He decided to wait from Smartaxe to talk.

"You are not the owner of this key." The goblin accused. "I am" contradicted Harry "But I don't want to be anymore. It's a long story and that's why I wanted to see my account manager. If I manage to prove myself, may I speak to him ?" Smartaxe took a long pondering look at the youth in front of him and finally said "We will need some blood, then you can talk. If this is a disguise, I want to know how it came to be." Smartaxe extracted a wicked looking dagger and parchment from behind his desk. Harry couldn't stop the shiver that shook him at the sight of the dagger. For a second, he saw Wormtail before him, then the low voices of the twins saying "It's standard procedure in Gringotts, Beautiful. They only need a drop of blood on the parchment." Shaking off the flash-back, Harry gave a wan smile. "Right. Sorry. Not a good history with daggers. I meant no insult." He said, addressing the Goblin. He gave him his hand, the other crushing Fred's finger in a death grip.

One drop of blood later, Harry squeaked in surprise as George buckled under the temptation to comfort him and pulled the slight body onto his lap. He wrapped his arms around the thin waist and rested his chin on the boy's shoulder. Harry could feel his blush returning but stayed put. It felt so nice to be held like this. He had never had much positive touch in his life and the bone-crushing hugs of Hermione and Molly only made him feel smothered. This embrace however, was only warmth. He shrunk back into George's chest, not caring that he was in a bank, in a private office to negotiate with a Goblin. He let himself be soothed as Smartaxe called his account manager (Griphook, apparently, either there were very few goblins, or this one had taken pains to come in contact with him) and let the twins recount the tale of the costume and his surprise arrival at night yesterday. He was wondering what else they could do to avoid other near blunder like the discussion with Madame Potage, when he was interrupted.

"Well, Mister Potter, what exactly do you want from Gringotts ?" asked the Goblins as the twins looked on in curiosity.

"Rather a lot, I confess."Harry began tentatively, and taking more assurance the longer he talked."I would like a complete summary of my accounts and possessions and I want to know what movements my money made from the time of my parents death to this day. If money or artifacts were taken other than an invisibility cloak and funds regarding Hogwart, I want you to seek restitution discretely in my stead. Perhaps a routine check on all your old accounts ? Then I would like to make a first Will, saying everything in my possession will go to charity, with Gringotts the executant so you can say so when they come in two weeks, asking about the handling of my estate. Then I want to make a second Will, a real one, kept secret with Griphook the executant. I would like to know if my parents made a Will and if it was executed. I would like to put my vaults under the Fidelius with my account manager as the Secret Keeper. That way, I can continue using them with another identity and nobody can illegally seize them. I would like a way to pay in both the wizarding and the muggle world, without having to bother you every day and risk being recognized. I would like monthly updates on the state of my finances to be sent to me. I would like to know if you can help me going around unrecognized. And, finally, I would like a word on your honor that all this will stay between us. I am ready to negotiate the fee for your services."

At the end of his tirade, the twins were flabbergasted and the goblins had a smile full of teeth."I like your way of thinking, mister Potter." said Smartaxe, still grinning. "Well," Harry retorted, "I am understanding more and more your view on Wizards, you know. After I take care of Voldemort, I will probably try to pull their heads out of their collective arses. I have no doubt it will be painful." Seeing a goblin smile on the face of such an innocent and adorable looking girl was positively frightening. "And, as of today, my name is Eleanor Sade, Master Smartaxe." When, after a surprisingly short time, they stood up to conclude the negotiation, the comprehension between the fierce looking Goblins and the barely taller slip of a girl, ruffles, ribbons, lace and all, was complete. They left feeling that they had made friends who would laugh with them at the despair of the idiot sheep calling themselves wizards.

Griphook took them to Harry's vaults and they cast the Fidelius charm. After the Secret Keeper told them were the main vault was, he advised Harry to look into the vault for wands and books. The main Potter Vault looked exactly like the Ali Baba cavern at first glance. Then George found torches and the light revealed that the vault was very much organized madness, kinda like the twin's flat. Fred followed Harry around holding open the bottomless featherweight pouches that Griphook had given them as Harry put almost every book he came across in it. George was doing the same in the other corner of the vault.

Against the deepest wall, they finally came across a tall rack of wands, all carefully laid beneath a small note with the name of the previous user and the date of their lives. Harry closed his eyes and began to walk along the shelves, trying to feel a compatible wand. It took five tries, but finally, a short wand made from a dark wood on the top most shelf reacted slowly, as if waking from a long sleep. The sign said only Ignotus Peverell, Fourth Century After Christos. Happy that they wouldn't have to go to Knockturn Alley today, Harry grabbed the wand, showering the shelves with a torrent of rainbow colored sparks.

Jumping down the ladder he had to take to reach the top shelves, Harry found himself in the muscular arms of Fred and George. The Twins almost regretted that Harry hadn't taken more time to find a wand. The vision of his legs, made longer by the green silk stocking, thighs quivering with the effort it took to move the ladder, and all the bending and tilting he had made, offering elusive sight of those silk panties, had been an enchantment for the twins. They thanked the low light of the vault. Surely, Harry would have remarked their arousal in broad daylight. All they had to do was make their way back out of Gringotts quietly, without Harry observing anything suspicious. This was made easier by the mood of the pretty boy. He skipped ahead in happiness, having already made his new wand disappear into a holster found on a nearby shelf, that became invisible as soon as it touched his skin, leaving the Twins to observe his bouncing skirts and the swaying hips.

The Goblins had been remarkably efficient, having prepared a mean to insure the anonymity of their new favorite client in the short while he was in his underground vault, but the trio had had a late start of the day. Meaning that they had to hurry. The first order of business was a trip to Madam Malkin's robe shop. It would take a while. Harry had no clothes other than the rags from Dudley which the twins had made disappear and his transfigured dress, which would revert back to being a sheet in a few hours. Conscious of the fact that he would be Eleanor from then on, he made his way to the section of the store dedicated to women's robes and accessories.

Harry stopped after two steps, suddenly conscious that he was alone. The twins had stopped at the entrance of the store. Making his way back, he was about to ask them what was the problem when Fred said "Beautiful, George will go to the Apothecary quickly. We need the potions for your eyes and hair and a few things for the shop. It's in Knockturn, so he can't go alone. Can we meet you back here in ten minutes ?" Harry's disappointment must have been visible because George was quick to add : "We'll make haste, Princess! Never let it be said that we would abandon you in face of the terrible ordeal of shopping, surrounded on all sides by mounds of frippery. We are your humble servants, after all." His wide teasing smile made Harry giggle and respond in kind, doing its best Malefoy impersonation : "Very well. You may go. Make sure to be back in time to carry my purchases, through or there will be...consequences." Laughing, the twins bowed low, before winking at him and jogging in the direction of Knockturn Alley.

Suddenly feeling very small, Harry turned with determination and slight dread towards the racks of women robes. At the entrance of the section, there were catalogs. Curious, Harry took one and began to leaf trough., reading the commentaries here and there. Puzzled, he took a look around. Being a girl seemed to be complicated business. Every detail had to be weighted against the overall view. There were mysterious items of clothing and accessories everywhere. Harry had never been shopping for clothes for himself. He never had a choice. Furthermore, he had no idea how to shop for a girl.

Resolving to begin with something familiar, then go with what felt right on his skin and pretty, he made his way toward the summer robes. He shyly browsed the racks of brightly colored and frilly dresses. He did not know why they called girls clothes "robes" too, they looked just like muggle dresses, albeit of a much older style. Only the teenage clothes could pass for something a goth girl might wear. It was not unusual to see a distinguished witch walking around in robes that looked similar to dresses of the muggle Victorian period.

Flipping through the dresses that hung on the racks, Harry sighed. A saleswoman had told him earlier where he could find robes in the style of the one he was wearing, so Harry felt he was finally making progress. He had already put asides several robes to try on, all in colors he liked. He even forced himself to take one or two in really girly colors, like peach or lilac. He was beginning to enjoy himself, deciding that this dress was pretty but this one had awful embroidery, even if he like the shade of blue. He felt a little disappointed still, to be alone. This was the beginning of his new life, he wanted to share it. And, for some weird and mysterious reason, the twins made it easier to consider becoming a girl for the foreseeable future. They made it not exactly easy but fun and the word freak didn't cross his mind while in their company.

He continued to pout slightly as he went to the changing rooms. His mood lifted a little with the parade of pretty dresses. He tried them all, one after another, twirling and sashaying in the lacy skirts and blushing a little at the sight of the petticoats and embroidered necklines. He would have to find a solution to his absence of cleavage soon. He could still pass for a developing teenager, but that wouldn't last forever. He took all the dresses he liked. There were more than enough for one week, but it was the first time he could take pleasure in his shopping, so why not ? And how twisted was it, that his first shopping trip ever, he had to cross-dress ?

His adorable pout turned almost instantly into a beautifully relieved smile when he caught sight of two redheads coming in the direction of the women clothing. He could hear their call. "Eleanor ? Where are you Beautiful ?" Harry suddenly felt as light as air at the tone of their voice. Okay, so maybe his life was a bit weird. But he was free and he had good friends who took care of him. And he was feeling beautiful for the first time of his life!

"Over there!" Harry waved and jumped over the racks so that she could be seen over them. As they came closer, Harry couldn't help asking "What took you so long ? Everything's okay ?" The sight of those large doe eyes, gazing at them with concern behind transfigured glasses provoked instant reaction for both twins. George silently cursed as he felt his trousers tighten. One after another, the twins reached down to cup Eleanor cheek and kissed her forehead. "We were quick and have been shopping for surprises for you. There are on hold at the counter, little love."Fred explained. "Do you have everything you need, Beautiful ? What can your knights help you with ?" George Asked, a teasing smile on his face.

The giggle he won for that question didn't help his trouser's situation. Damn, Harry was irresistible when cute and bashful. "I have dresses." "Right. Then, allow your servants to assist you in your quest of shoes and stockings, little lady." George offered his arm and lead the giggling teenager toward the next section of the store. There were a few really embarrassing moment for Harry, as he had to buy underwear, too. He allowed the twins to deal with the frilly panties and whatnot, as he was blushing too hard at the time. In retrospect, it was perhaps unwise of him. But, well, it was done.

They brought silken stoking in every color matching his dresses and even a few others. Strangely, he hadn't be able to resist buying the rainbow colored one. Then they had to choose shoes. Harry took three pairs, more than he ever had in his entire lifetime. He wasn't certain he would ever be able to walk with the one the twins had insisted he get, the three inches heeled Marie Jane, but well. It was worth it to see the smile they made when he tried them on. He quite licked the new way they made his body move. And at least, he had escaped stilettos, as Wizards didn't have them. He had a slight incline that this only a temporary reprieve and that, as soon as they would go shopping in the muggle world, he would have problems.

Harry silently thanked the inventor of the color-changing charm. Three pair of shoes were more than enough for him, thank you very much ! He didn't have to drawn in shoes only because they had to match his dress like the models he had seen on TV at his relatives. Pausing slightly, he wondered at the strange turn his life had taken. He wasn't shocked anymore to have this kind of thoughts. He realized that it would probably worsen the longer he stayed in the skin of Eleanor Sade. This last thought didn't bother him either. How disquieting ! He was glad to be able to adapt so quickly, but precisely, the lacks of resistance was worrying. What did that say about him ?

Harry decided here and there that it was a sign of his resilience and his dedication to his freedom. And promptly tried to forget the last five minutes. So he badgered the twins to know what was in the mysterious bags they had paid from Madame Malkins, after Eleanor was through buying his purchases for the day. They were silent, however. Only telling him that it was surprise rewards for later. "It's already five thirty, Beautiful, and you're still healing. Our next stop is the last one before we go home, right ?" Fred was pretending to be stern and failing completely, his mouth half-grinning.

"Well, I'm sorry to say that I think we need to stop at Flourish and Blotts." Harry couldn't go on, because George was suddenly fake-crying "Oh, no! Fred ! Our little Eleanor is a bookworm ! Oh awful ! Do you think she can still be saved ? Oooh ! Is it contagious ?" Harry swatted his shoulder, smiling shyly, before taking his arm. "Onward, my knight, there are books to carry! Don't make me wait!" And so, laughingly, they ended their shopping trip in the wizarding bookstore.


	4. Chapter 4 : Sunday evening

**Chapter Four**

After a consequent pause to restore themselves, this Sunday evening found our three heroes in the living-room of the twin's flat. It would be slightly incorrect to say that had a wonderful time. Their nerves had been tried several times. Harry's body was still recovering from his ordeal at the hands of his relatives. And he hadn't been in touch with his inner-girl long enough to bear without consequences a whole afternoon of shopping yet. But they had made progress, and their time in Gringott's, while tense, had allowed them to become more certain of their future success. Nevertheless, it was the end of a long day, and they were ready for a rest.

This was the time the transfigured hair and clothing took to end. Harry found himself hugging a sheet to himself, the thin fabric his only rampart between him and nakedness. There was a moment of silence, then, suddenly, as one, they were laughing, a full belly laugh, the kind that leaves one aching slightly from over-exerted muscles. This was exactly was they needed at the time. The laughter freed them of any lingering tensions, leaving them feeling almost high.

After a while, Harry lifted his head from the arm of the sofa, where it had been lying. He found himself face-to-face with two mischievous smiles and twinkling gazes. "So, Beautiful, are you ready to leave Harry Potter behind definitely ?", "Right, today, the 22th of July, will be your new birthday and the delivery of Eleanor Sade." Fred and George declared, in their best Percy voices.

"Of course, I am ! But I think we still have details to iron. I don't want to pull another Madame Potage's impro !" Harry said, with a big smile. "I think you should stop calling me Harry anyway. If you slip, our whole prank will be spoiled!" His smile turned a bit shy, and his blush came back with Fred response "Well, Lovey, I have to say I would never have thought you would be so anxious to begin your life as a woman!"

At that, Harry's face turned pensive. "Uh...I'm not sure 'excited' is the word, but...it will mean freedom for me! I'll be able to be myself...only...as a woman. I've never been free to make my own choices before...That's probably why I'm not more disturbed by the thought of living as a woman from now on... Anyway...What do we have to do ?"

George's face had a tender smile as he contemplated the slight boy. "First, you'll have to have a massage with the Scars Removal Paste. Then you'll have the potion to fix your eyesight. This one will probably hurt. And finally, the Hair Growth potion !" "Right, and we will begin to make further plans as we cut your hair! So come here, Beautiful, sit between my legs, we'll begin with the fun part right away." Fred charmed, wiggling his eyebrow. He made Harry laugh, just like he intended. The delicate boy plopped himself in the middle of the sofa, between Fred's spread legs, and let him tug the sheet down, around his hips, without blushing. "Don't forget me !" George exclaimed, mock-crying, "Here, give me your arms and legs, little love, I'm sure I give better massage than this lout ! Never knew how to treat a lady, this one!"

So Harry found himself giggling in the middle of the twin's flat, their hands on his skin, stroking his flesh firmly to allow the thick paste to soak into his skin. He could already see the ugly scar that Wormtail left on his forearm lightening. He was so absorbed by the sight of his scars slowly disappearing that he didn't notice the looks the twins were shooting him, nor the physical reaction the revealing of his mostly naked body induced. By then, Fred and George didn't know whether to be pleased by this or not. They reasoned they had time, now that Eleanor would stay with them.

The silence had just become heavy with tension when the massage ended. Without speaking George handed the vial of potion to Harry. He took the vial and a big breath, before gulping it down. He found himself choking a bit at the awful taste of the potion, but before he could register anything else, his eyes began to burn and his vision turned white. He keened, a low, tormented, hurting sound. He didn't feel Fred's arms embracing him, nor George's head burying itself in his stomach, hugging his legs to prevent him from kicking out in pain.

When he came to, ten minutes later, he was being petted by four hands, warm breath puffing on his neck and belly, grave voices making soothing sounds. His cheeks were wet and his eyes were closed. He relaxed in the twin's embrace, waiting for the last of the pain to leave. When he finally lifted his eyelids, it was to see two grave and concerned faces, red hair in disarray and freckles standing out on their pale skin. He had never be able to see more clearly ! He could see the perfection of the twin's smiles, a slow blossom erupting as they reacted to the awed look on his face. "So beautiful" Harry murmured, lifting his hands to lightly caress their lips. He suddenly found himself crushed between two hard bodies, their relieved laughter tinted with a twinge of hysteria.

They stayed that way for a while, half sitting, half leaning into the sofa and each other bodies. They stayed that way, Harry observing avidly everything around him. They stayed this way, even when one of the twin reached out, handing another potion vial to Harry, murmuring "This one shouldn't hurt at all, little love." Harry slowly extracted his hands from the tangle of limbs, uncorked the vial and gulped down again. The space of a few heartbeats, nothing changed. Then, Harry felt an itching under his scalp, followed by a tingling sensation. Suddenly, his head felt heavier and there was a thick black curtain before his eyes. He mumbled absently "Tickles." The soft locks on his still naked skin were like fingertips brushing the small of his back, his arms, his legs.

"George, I think it stopped growing."A whisper. "Fred, you better hope our beautiful babe is still breathing under all this or there' ll be hell to pay." A growl. Then, together, softly. "Little Love?" Raising his hand, Harry parted the flow of black locks, throwing back one half over his shoulder. "Is this normal ?" He asked, a little anxiously. He had no idea of the picture he was offering : a delicate golden body, cascading blacks curls half-hiding, half-revealing the slight curves of his hips and chest and framing large slanted green eyes. The twin's breath caught.

"No..No worries..Bb..Beautiful."stuttered George before clearing his throat and continuing more firmly. "Uh...the potion always grow more hair than needed. Now we will be cutting it." He brandished his wand with a flourish, a teasing smile forming on his lips : "This way, if you please, Milady". Pivoting on one heel, he offered Harry his arm, kicking his brother's leg in the same movement. "Right" Fred muttered. "Right. Breathe in. Breathe out. Again." then, louder. "you look stunning, little love."

George fussed around Harry, arranging his sheet on the armchair he had led him to, his dramatics making Harry giggle. Fred conjured a big mirror in front of the armchair, a white towel on his forearm, scissors, then he turned around and bowing low before Harry, he exclaimed with a very fake Italian accent "Ow vill ze signorina 'ave her hair ?"Straightening back up, he said "Seriously, Beautiful, long hair suits you. What do you say ?" Haircuts were another first for Harry, so he answered hesitantly "I have to hide my scar, so, I need a bang. But I don't want a something that hide just my forehead, that's too obvious...I'm okay with long hair, but...Uh...I'd like to be able to lift my head. And I don't want to have to worry about stepping on it. Can we cut it at least a little ? And make it lighter ?" The answer was a flawless chorus :"No problemo !"

"Hey, while we get to work, little love, why don't you tell us why you wanted to get in Flourish and Blotts? And whatever plan you still have for tomorrow." Slowly, Harry began to explain. "Well, I want to spend tomorrow in muggle London... It'll be a good place to train myself in being a girl... And I want to buy things to complete my disguise... Muggle have make-up that can probably finish to hide my scar... They have lenses that, once put on the eyes, change their color... They can dye my hair a shade different. It'll stay natural but set me further apart from Harry Potter... Then we have to activate the device Gringotts gave us to hide me. Perhaps when can even do it tonight. I think there are several spells we have to perform on me then on it before you put it in my ear. I should probably pierce both my ears, since I'll already have the Gringott's hearing. I don't want it to stand out..."the soft voice was punctuated with the light snipping sound of the scissors working his hair. The Twins concentrated on what they were doing, but admired the mind of the slight boy. He not only had ideas, he had the balls to make them come true. They found their respect for him growing.

"Lovely Eleanor, me think we will make an unstoppable team." George said softly in the half silence that had Harry thinking to the rest of their plan. "Right, my brother is, Beautiful ! You know we are geniuses," Fred continued modestly, "but we rarely have to think trough all our plans and pranking..." "...Since we are now masters..." "...in our own domain..." "...and don't need to think of repercussions..." "Right! We could use..." "...someone to keep track of things!". Their familiar style of declamation had Harry beaming and thoughtfully retorting "You know, I think you should really consider more the possible applications of your pranks. After all, all this stuff is wonderfully effective and new... They could maybe make perfect weapons...Well, maybe not the more ridiculous one, because Moldyvort and his Death-Munchers don't deal very well with ridicule and humiliation...but these one could be good for us to use." He continued with a mischievous and devious smile "You know, now that we have pranked Dumbledore, we should really think about something as grandiose to prank the opposite party with!" His expression turned troubled and worried "Because there is the connection between us...my scar...I don't know how he will react to my 'death'. He will probably be able to tell that I'm not dead...What do you know about Prophecies?" He asked suddenly.

Fred and George interrupted him as one "We don't know how much of the connection was transferred to the golem, but even then, there are ways to protect someone from mental attacks. There probably are some solutions in your books from your Vault. The ancient pureblooded families tried to protect their heirs from everything possible before they could even open their eyes. Wait, why do you want to know about prophecies ?" This prompted another lengthy explanation. It was so huge, the Twins had to seat before Harry's armchair, thinking furiously.

"So, you see, even if I disappear, I probably have to do something about stupid Voltywart anyway. I don't want to risk doing nothing and realizing later that the Prophecy was right. As much as I despise the wizarding World right now, I can't condemn it to this fate. Plus, there are some aspects of it I simply love too much to see them endangered without doing anything." There was another lengthy silence, and Harry began to fidget. "Well...if you want to change the plan,it's okay...I would understand...I don't want to put you in more danger..." In the absence of reactions from the two statufied bodies before him, Harry tried to stand, still wrapped in his sheet and in his long hair. He could feel his eyes tearing up and began to give himself a good talking to. After all, how could he resent the Twins ? This was rather a lot to deal with. There were young businessmen and they had dreams to realize. None of them probably involved him and there is always a natural limit to human generosity. He wasn't even family, for Merlin's sake ! They had to think of their own first!

Before he could castigate himself further, hands took hold of his arms and shoulders and pressed him back in his armchair. Serious looking identical faces swam before his eyes. "Harry." the Twins said with graves and low voices "Harry. We will plan for this later, okay ? First, we have to finish your disguise. It must be perfect if we want to protect you from the Wizarding World in general and the Order in particular. We will plan and deal with the rest later, okay ? Consider that you have two weeks vacation before you. Live a little! Be silly ! Become the cutest girl on the planet! AND, don't let anyone pressure you into anything, please. Even us. Think about it carefully first." They were smiling again. Their hands were still on him, pressing a little, comforting Harry. He gave them a wobbling smile. "That's much better, miss Eleanor! Don't worry your pretty little head so much !"George exclaimed. "True!" added Fred "We will plan together and get to work each on different aspect of the plan, okay ? Because, we know, there's still problems to solve. But, now, you have created your background story, so let's give some substance to your new life!" "Yeah, then you will have to work on your alibi in the Alley, deal with customers in the shop, then with Ron...so take it one thing at a time!"

"Right" Harry took a deep breath. "You sure you want to do this ? This is probably your last chance to back out." "Ow, Harry, you wound us! Do you think so little of us, that we would abandon you alone to the wolves ?" George mock-cried on his twin's shoulder. "Look at what you've done!" Fred said with a smile, before he continued with a graver face "Seriously, Harry, that should be our line. Can you deal with this disguise ? You will be a girl for everyone but us. That means that people will come onto you, you will have to act daintily and properly...Well, as much as any girl can in our company!"

Harry took his time considering all that and said "I think I will do this. The freedom it gives me is addicting, you know! I brought books in Flourish and Blotts to help. There were a few I saw in the hands of your sister or Parvati and Lavender. I thought it would probably be a good place to begin...I'll have to go back, anyway. I'll make a list of everything I must learn and research, of everything that I find interesting. I thought I could model my girl persona on different girls I know in the beginning, before I know what works for me. Like, Hermione, for the brain, Lavender and Parvati for the vanity, and Luna for most of the attitude. What do you think ?"

The Twins whistled. "Me think you'll be a pretty interesting girl to be around, little love!" George added "True, but let's continue with the haircut! It's almost finished, then we can plan some more for tomorrow, make lists of the next urgent thing to orchestrate, and of all the pranks you want us to play." Fred took the hints "You know, the first thing in prank planning is supplies. We'll probably be shopping tomorrow too. But, hey, girls love to shop, right ? That' ll be good practice!" Harry felt lighter, his mood soaring. The Twins weren't running away crying in the opposite direction! Of course, they were brave Gryffondors, but still ! He gave them each a bone crushing hug and beaming smile and got a tease in return "Hey ! Don't you go and take example on our mum too much, okay ?" Fred added "Yes, spare us, harry, please ! One is more than enough!" Harry couldn't help but laugh at that, privately agreeing wholeheartedly.

So Harry seated himself of the armchair again, with a quill and parchment this time, and began to note every thought flying around his head. There were a lot, and they were all disorganized. The Twins added to the chaos on the parchment by throwing ideas, suggestions and concern around, scissors snapping all the while. They were particularly insistent on the fact that Eleanor had to learn how to take good care of herself, including her body. They stated they were serious with the looking after her business. They would take over themselves if they had to. Another fifteen minutes later, the twins announced that they were finished and ordered harry to sit still 'till they had collected all the hair and burned them. You can't be too careful, after all. Anyone trying Polyjuice or any other potion with Harry's hair would gain damning results (for them and the future of Eleanor). The time it took to carefully eliminate any strand of dark hair from the loft allowed Harry to organize their mad list a little. Enough, at least, that he could see what they would need to do tomorrow. The list ran like this :

mind protection, way to protect our secrets against legilimency and veritaserum (oath ?)

construction of the disguise (behavior, props, background story, etc)

Muggle world : disguise (scar, hair, contact-lenses), prank material, weapons against Voldemort ?

Eleanor's old life :relationship with the twins (concrete places and times to back the story with),records?

topics to study : OWLS, NEWTs, healing, metamorphing & disguises, defensive & offensive spellworks and items, warding, crafting (to helps the twins), runes, arithmancy, serious potions making and herbology...

Voldemort's reaction to Harry's death + idem other groups : order, Ministry, friends... → how to deal with the fallout ?

notice to Gringotts : Black inheritance (Deathmunchers in the family)? Re-integrating Andromeda ?

+Investment : third part of WWW, wards on the flat and shop (Bill ?), developing R & D

Allies : House-Elves : Dobby & Winky ? + Potter and Black Manors.?

Death munchers to identify & neutralize

Voldywart to eliminate : how did he come back ? → research spirits & rituals

"I probably forgot some points, but we can always add to it." Harry said pensively. Hearing that, Fred and George came and began to read the parchment over his shoulders. "Well" Fred said with a whistle, "we won't be bored, that's for sure!". "Right" George added, "Let's wait a little before adding anything, even easy ones like curing lycanthropy, okay ? This could already take a while..." Harry's face lit up "Oooh! Good idea!" and, with great care and a teasing smile, he wrote at the end of the list 'cure lycanthropy, prejudices against magical beings, muggle's stupid misrepresentation'. "Maybe this can wait a bit..." he said, pensively caressing his lips with the end of his quill.

Fred and George laughed softly. Each took one of his wrists and pulled. "Come on, Little princess, admire our hard work a little !" Fred said. "We should have become professional hairdresser, Gred" added George "Yes, we're just that good". Harry was speechless. He stood still in front of the big mirror the twins had conjured in a corner of the living room, drinking in the sight he made. He really DID look like a girl ! His dark hair were still long. He could feel them brushing the small of his back, which was still bare. It felt lighter, through. Turning his head, he could see that the twins had given him a layered cut which formed an inverted triangle pointing to the ground. The cut allowed his hair to curl, but still gave them a semblance of order, very different from the bird nest look he sported habitually.

Turning around again, he examined his face. His bangs were much longer, hanging past his chin, and layered, too. He tried pushing them behind his ears. They brushed his high cheekbones and covered the sides of his forehead, hiding his scar completely. He fingered them, letting them hang freely, and again his scar wasn't to be seen. He then tried to put them all behind one ear. To the right, the big lock of hair hid not only his scar, but obscured a part of his face from view. To the left, the lightning bolt stayed clearly visible. "Wow...I think I'll keep the bangs to the right. I'm supposed to be a bit shy, after all, right ? It'll probably be okay if I hide behind my hair. And it'll make me more difficult to recognize." He continued to finger his curls, moving his head this way and that way, watching them bounce, trying to get used to the feel of it.

The Twins were clearly proud of their work, a feeling that what visible in their proprietary gaze. Fred shook his head, trying to dispel his thoughts, full of comparison with Greek goddesses. Harry did cut quite a sight, the drape of the sheet around him reminding one of the togas of old, his green eyes appearing bigger and glowing with magic, his slight features made him an ethereal and unearthly being. Elbowing George, he asked "What's next, Beautiful ? Do you want to take a shower or do you prefer to work on Gringott's solution to stay invisible ? George and I do have a gift for you, however." This pulled his twin out of his admirative contemplation and made him add "We hope you'll like it, it's part of the mysterious bags from Madam Malkin's."

Tilting his head to the side, Harry pondered his choices for a minute, before responding "I've no idea whether Gringott's solution' ll be painful or not. I think I prefer to wait after it's done to shower." "Right-o" exclaimed the twins "Then, if Milady, would makes us the honor to take it out of her many, many, many shopping bags, maybe...we could get to it now ?" Coking their eyebrows, the twins shot a teasing smile at the effeminate looking boy who seemed to have difficulty to quit the sight of his reflection. "Should we change your name to Narcissus ?" Fred teased. Blushing, Harry quickly knotted the sheet around his hips, before rummaging in the bags thrown on the floor of the living room till he found the right one.

"Ah-ah!"The exclamation was followed by a box raised triumphantly above his head, his other hand clutching a few sheet a parchments. "Those are the explicative notice, I think." Giving the box to George, he began to read quietly, Fred doing the same over his shoulder. "This seems to be relatively simple. You cast one spell on me, think of what you want to change, and how you want it altered, then you cast the same on the earring. There are three spells : one for my voice, one for my scent and one for my magical signature... This here says that it's a hephaïston earring. What does that mean ?" questioned Harry.

"I thought that what it was" answered George. "See" he added, showing them a whole, perfect band in a strange metal, its color undefinable "It has no fastener. That's because only the person who put it in can put it out. It forges a magical link between the metal, the flesh of the one who wear it and the one who attach it." Harry thought on it a little, the said "Then I want you both to put it on me, this way, no one will be able to take it off, since, even if worse came to worse, it's impossible to Impero two person at the same time." A little gobsmacked, the twins responded in their mismatched way "You're such a cheerful person, Princess..." "...But that's probably..." "..a good idea..." "Thinks often of things..." "...Like that ?"

"Well", a sheepish looking Harry primly answered "Someone has to ?" The twins shook their hand in mock reproof, rolling their eyes with a half smile. It was a peculiar expression. "Let's do this, then." said George. "It's so good of you to trust us with your future self, little Princess" added Fred with a smirk. Harry gulped but bravely answered " It WAS your idea, wasn't it ? I take it you thought about it. I'm not sure why that doesn't weird me out, yet. Must be the shock." he mumbled. The twins took the time to plot a little, bending over the parchment to study the spells, still smirking. Meanwhile, Harry was looking around, contemplating the added chaos of the shopping bags to the already messy flat.

Feeling too tired to deal with it right this minute, Harry took his parchment list out and began to contemplate it. Was it complete ? What could he add ? In which direction could he go looking ? ...They needed trusted allied... They had the Goblins already...knowledgeable peoples...Well, there was Ollivander. Although he was a little creepy and Harry didn't know how much he would help them or if he would keep their secrets...the centaurs ! The centaurs always knew a lot, but they didn't care about humans ! They wouldn't care either that he was hiding as a girl. Hell, they probably already knew! It would take a while to convince them, through. Maybe if he could help them with something, they would realize they could trust him, even a little. He would need to research their culture. Goblin's too, probably. Couldn't hurt to take care of his first allies. Perhaps look into learning Gobelydook ? But what could they help with, apart from the banking side of things ?...Well, Goblins were formidable warriors. Perhaps he could learn if they consented to teach ?

At this, his train of thought was derailed by the simple consideration that his body wasn't probably up to anything very strenuous. He would have to build his strength and endurance, first. And probably also find a trustworthy healer to give him a complete checkup... Was there something as wizarding vaccination ?...He would have to look into emergency first-aid and battleground healing. Probably the rest too, as the experiments the twins made were always somewhat dangerous at the beginning, if the Ron's stories and the scorch marks on the walls of the loft were to be believed. His list was getting disorganized again, growing by leaps and bound. While the amount of work was staggering, he was confident : he was not alone this time. He would be able to do things in his own time...Well, as much as Voldy let him anyway. When he began to attack again, they would have to be ready. Maybe they could try to help the muggleborns ?...How could they help protect people ?...It would have to be some preemptive measure they could sell as a prank.. .Didn't wizards have some kind of armor ?

His list was growing rapidly, part of it underlined. The number of question marks and the sheer volume of things to research, to do, to solve was a little dizzying. Even if he wasn't alone. He would have to prioritize and fix himself deadlines, he thought with a frown. _For example, anything with muggleborn must be ready for mid-August, when they'll come to do their Hogwart shopping. That leaves me...let's say seven weeks. Well, I'll have to look into getting some serious magical help. The twins have a shop to mind and the Goblins have to run their bank, after all. And I have to work on it, too, especially since it's my idea. But perhaps House Elves would have ideas._ The idea of what Dobby could do without precise or clear instructions made him shiver a little. _What if he decide to protect me again ? I'll have to be perfectly prepared before speaking to him about anything... Perhaps he would accept a bond with me ? He does seem a little...unhinged. Darn it! Another things to research !_

mind protection, way to protect our secrets against legilimency and veritaserum (oath ?)

construction of the disguise (behavior, props, background story, etc)

Muggle world : disguise (scar, hair, contact-lenses), prank material, weapons against Voldemort ?

Eleanor's old life : relationship with the twins , pranks...

topics to study : OWLS, NEWTs, healing, metamorphing & disguises, defensive & offensive spellworks and items, warding, crafting (to helps the twins), runes, arithmancy, some serious potions and herbology

Voldemort reaction to Harry's death + idem other groups : order, Ministry, friends... → how to deal with the fallout ?

notice to Gringotts : Black inheritance (Deathmunchers in the family)? Andromeda to re-integrate.

+ founds available ?

+Investments : third part of WWW, wards on the flat and shop (Bill ?), developing R & D, muggle world (dealing with waste, garbage, etc. purifying water...)

Allies : House-Elves : Dobby & Winky : bonds? + Potter and Black Manors.?

Death munchers to neutralize → how ? Identification ?

Voldywart to eliminate : how did he come back ? → research spirits & rituals

cure lycanthropy, begin with distributing wolfsbane →creating a foundation : problem : founding ?

annihilate magical beings prejudice, seek their freedom (or independence at least), representation in the governing bodies → exist already ? Recruit Hermione ? Luna ?

fight muggle stupid misrepresentation : muggle technology (prank shop), begin small, like fountain pen for muggleborn, varied color and worth (luxurious one for pureblood, for ex)

+ look into genetics to be clear on the topic of blood superiority crap → wizarding equivalent ?

contact centaurs : allies against Voldy → how to gain their trust ?

+Research their culture and Goblin's too

find a Healer : vaccines ? Aftermath of the abuse ? learning healing ? First-aid ?

Means of protection for everyday people and muggleborn against Voldy : armors ?

He looked up with a sight to find the Twins observing him with half-worried, half-amused faces. "Are you ready to stop wrinkling your cute forehead with this awful frown, Princess ?" asked Fred. George went on "You DO know, that you've been free for only a day , right ? Nobody expect you to achieve world's domination in the next five minutes." Harry moaned "But...But it's going to be SO MUCH work it'll probably mess with my hairdo !" Hearing himself, he couldn't help but laugh out loud. "That's better!" exclaimed the twins. "Now, come here, we're ready! Let go of your evil, evil list. You'll get to it in the morning, alright ?"

So Harry subjected himself to the twin's spells, one after another. They had a slightly difficult moment when they had to put the earring on Harry : the ring was small and both twins had to hold it in place on his ear at the same time. There was a sharp biting pain, and it was done. "Speak Harry, we want to hear our Princess's sweet voice." demanded George. "Oh, shut up!" retorted Harry. He started a little, hearing another voice coming from his throat. It was a not really higher than normal, but most of all, there was a definite softness to it. His intonations were different. He could probably still sing alto, but he would have problems going lower. Well, he didn't know how to sing in tune anyway. "Okay, it worked. It just a little weird." A loud sniffle interrupted him "So sad ! To see our Princess so ungrateful for our hard work!" Fred's eyes were twinkling. George mock-scolded "To the bathroom, little lady! Then straight to bed! Not a thank you, hu ?" Getting sucked into the game, Harry blushed, then, nose firmly in the hair, he made his best miffed-Ginny imitation "Fine ! Be that way!" He took two steps before tripping on his sheet, falling laughing in the arms of Fred. He murmured a "thanks", gave each the twins a hug, then scampered to the bathroom, his sheet bunched up in his hands.

The twins let themselves fall on the living room sofa. They tiredly high- fived each other, before taking a moment to ponder the state of things. Looking absentmindedly at the bags thrown here and there, they realized they hadn't given Harry the promised surprise. Fred got up, rummaging in the bags till he found what he wanted. He then took it to the bathroom, signaling it to Harry. George had gotten up too, taking a quick survey of the state of their stock of potions ingredients. His twin helped with the inventory for a moment.

The soft padding of bare feet behind them made them turn around. They were struck speechless for a minute at the sight of Harry, his dark curls dancing, a heavy lock obscuring almost completely one of his green eyes. The forest green silk nightgown he was wearing made his eyes stand out, their lighter green reminding them for a second of the deadly curse with which they shared this color. The silk was dancing with each of his steps, underlining furtively his curves, revealing brief peeks of his feet. His shoulder and arms were bare, save two large lacy straps in a golden green color and sunflower pattern. The lace ran from there to the neckline and cinched his waist, Empire-style. The time they took to scrutinize each inch of Harry's figure was all said boy needed to arrive in front of them. He stood there, blushing madly and told them, his voice slightly outraged, that he demanded an explanation. Or else.

Still drinking in the sight he made, the twins managed to explain that they wanted to ease his conversion into a girl as much as possible. That, in their experience, this kind of nightwear was one of the nicest thing a girl could sleep in. "And, concluded Fred, when we saw it, we couldn't resist buying it for you, Beautiful" "Fred is right, as always, added George, It suits you perfectly, Little Love. You look delectable. It would have been criminal to act otherwise. Come on, let's go to bed, now." Mollified for the moment and too tired to continue protesting, Harry let himself be led to the bedroom. Never in a million year would he have confessed that he loved the present and adored the look it gave the twins.


	5. Chapter 5 : Tuesday, the 23th of June

**Chapter Five**

Tuesday morning came, bright and early, the scene in the twins bedroom more or less a repeat of the day before. Harry decided that he could definitely get used to waking cocooned in a warm muscular embrace, silk encompassing his skin with softness. The Twins were hard again and so was he this time. The combination of the twin's arousal throbbing on either sides of him and the feels of the sensual nightclothes brushing against sensitive parts of his body was creating a delicious torture.

His only problem was that he had no idea what to do about it. Well, his body was all for rubbing himself into the deliciously warm hardness that surrounded him but his head didn't dare. To say the least, he wasn't certain of his welcome. He had no idea of the twin's orientation, or even how the wizarding world viewed homosexuality. They were so incredibly backwards, he wouldn't be surprised if it was another taboo, but you never knew. If there was one thing he knew as absolute truth about the wizarding world, it was that it wasn't logical. So he decided to be true to himself and went with the most logical choice for him : he stayed put, determined to enjoy the situation while it lasted. He made a note to himself to look into a book of wizarding culture, tradition and etiquette. He was practically sure he had one like that in the bags in the living room. It should at least shed some light on the wizarding world 's position on acceptable sexuality.

There was something sinful to this much comfort, he thought. But maybe that was the part of him that had integrated the Dursley's beliefs and codes of conduct talking. Still, he was feeling very decadent and embracing it joyfully. Well, it seems I'm gay, after all. No wonder Cho's kiss was wet at best. I wonder how a kiss from a man would feel... As he closed his eyes, trying to imagine it, he felt his humans blankets begin to wake, sluggishly moving. They had apparently realized that they were thoroughly entangled in a human trap.

Harry concentrated on breathing deeply, slowly and evenly. There was a moment of stillness where he was certain that the Twins knew he was awake, then they hugged him closer, theirs hands tenderly caressing the skin they could reach. He felt two kisses on his shoulder and neck, then the Twins were carefully disentangling themselves. He listened with attention as they took pains to be silent with their mornings ablutions and finally closed the door to the bedroom with a soft clicking sound. Opening his eyes, Harry rolled onto his back in the bed. Suddenly, it was huge and cold, without the Twins here. With a heavy sight and a new resolution to think back later on these mysterious growing feelings, Harry stood up, mentally preparing himself to transform into Eleanor. Rummaging in the few bags who made it inside the bedroom, he grabbed the first dress he found.

Five minutes later, emerging from the shower and drying the moisture in his hair with a towel, as he didn't know the charm to do it magically, he made a note to himself to research urgently all the magical means that could help him with his clothing, personal hygiene and health. His skin was rough. He was pretty sure no girl would have let herself go like this and still wear the kind of clothes he had on. _At least, whatever the twins did to the golem to transfer all attached foreign magics made the scar removing paste work beautifully. Even Umbitch's scar is gone ! And I think the one on my forehead is getting lighter._ Meanwhile, he resolved to ask the Twins to help with his hairtyle. Now, for the rest of it...he thought.

The panties gave him no problem other than the very nice sensation of lace and silk on his skin. The garter belt and stockings were another matter. He had seen what they were supposed to look like, it just took him some time to correctly attach the clasps behind his thighs. They has to be a spell ! Or perhaps he would have to ask some help from the twins. Harry suddenly felt shy. He wasn't sure of himself. This clothes were much more revealing than anything he ever wore (the only exception been yesterday) and there were...icky details. Like his pubic hair. There was no reason for his bashfulness, really, they had seen each other naked after quidditch, for Merlin sake ! Perhaps it was his inner-girl manifesting herself...The panties did look weird with the dark patch of hair against the lace.

The dress stayed with the coloring of his underwear : mostly peach, with some old rose lace in an almost esoteric pattern. It had a slightly flaring shape in a flowing fabric that ended mid-thigh. The hemline and loose short sleeves were lined with the same old rose lace that formed the under-layer of the dress, peaking from under the peach body of the skirt. The neckline disappeared beneath a very short old rose diamond shaped corset with golden arabesques. It gave the impression of hiding a slight cleavage. The length of the sleeves and the stockings were concealing the rest of his sparse body hair. Seeing them had made him uneasy, however and he vowed to add it to his list of urgent matters to deal with. He tied a peach ribbon in a loose bow around his neck, another around his wrist, and avoiding the mirror, for fear of ridicule, resolved to go into the living room. He was embarrassed...like he had to go outside in public without showering in his pajama.

His heroic battle against woman frippery had left him very hungry. _It only took him...a quick Tempus...almost half an hour ! Wow ! Gotta work on it !_ Luckily, their early wake up call left them with plenty of time, but still. When he had to apply the make up to hide his scar or to wash his hair, he would be spending a huge amount of time in the bathroom. He would definitely have to research magical ways to speed things up. It was a good thing it was so early, because Harry had a loooooong list of things to look for in the muggle world today. Getting ready to face the music, he took a big breath and pushed the door to the living room.

Silently padding into the living room, he retrieved his shoes, quickly changing the Mary Jane's coloring to chocolate brown before putting them on. Finally, unable to delay the confrontation with the twins any longer, he headed towards the kitchen.

George was facing the stove, cooking something, but Fred saw him right away. He looked speechless for a minute, before smiling widely and giving a wolf whistle that attracted his twin's attention. George leered at him for a moment before declaring, his face completely serious "There never was a more deserved nickname than yours, Beautiful." Fred was shaking his head besides his brother, approving wholeheartedly. Harry looked around the kitchen for a minute, trying to regain his composure. He wasn't expecting this kind of greeting, especially from the twins ! Merciless teasing, yes, but that ! The kitchen was in the same state of structured chaos than the rest of the flat, but there was a clear spot with an empty plate surrounded with potions vials on the kitchen table. His seat, he supposed. Sitting down, he could still feel two intense gazes concentrated on him. By then, his face was probably as red as the Gryffondor common room. Perhaps it would stay that way permanently ?

Clearing his throat with effort, Harry shyly reached out to and handed to Fred the peach ribbons he took from the bathroom. "It seems that I am in need of your hairdresser's talent, if you would ?" Fred eagerly stood up and circumnavigated the table to stand behind Harry. Dragging his hands through Harry's curls, he hummed a little. "You didn't untangle your hair, right ?.." He went on, not waiting for his answer."...Well, it would have taken too long, anyway. There has to be a way to do it magically...Oh, and we have to buy you a comb, I can't believe we forgot yesterday!...Riiiight-o!...There your are!" Quickly conjuring a mirror, Harry saw that his long bang was secured to the right of his forehead with a ribbon in an hairband imitation, hiding his scar. He could feel the bow tickling the back of his left ear. The other two ribbons were securing two half-ponytails behind his head, the mass of curls giving the impression of an elaborate hairtyle instead of the two minutes job of a novice. Banishing the mirror again, he thanked Fred and turned his attention to his breakfast.

Merlin, he was SO hungry! It took him several minutes to demolish enough food to feel sated. He tried his best to act with manners befitting a young lady. It wasn't so hard and let him wonder at the amount of food he was able to consume. He supposed it had to do with the potions he had to chug before each meal. Pensively, he asked, interrupting a whispered conversation "How long will I have to take the potions ? Do we have to brew more ? Do we have enough ingredients ?" The twins cut him before he could continue to question them. "We figure that you'll have to take them at least till the end of the summer. You can't have more than a certain amount of the nutrient potions and restorative draught at the same time, but we figure that you need so much because of the abuse was so extensive and ongoing." George took over "Ideally, we should take you to a Healer before that time, for a more complete check-up, but we don't know one trustworthy enough. Pomfrey is out, as she spend too much time under Dumbledore's crooked nose and she would recognize you no matter the disguise. She knows your medical history rather well."

"So, we have some time before we must address that problem, is that it ?" Harry concluded. "In the meanwhile, I'll try to learn as much healing as possible...I'm feeling way better anyway." "You're learning, Beautiful, stress about one thing at a time!"the Twins congratulated. He continued purposely "Do you have anything special you want to do today ? Because I have a big list of items to search for, and there're all in the muggle world. Will that be okay ? I thought of things that could be useful to you, too. And, well, I was thinking that perhaps we could make regular outings in the muggle world. It's safer than the wizard side of things for the moment and there's so much I want to show you...Wizards don't know anything about muggles, we could change that or we could take their ideas as our secret weapons..." Harry had gotten a little starry eyed during his rant. He cut himself when he heard merry laughter. "Merlin, Harry, you're getting awfully excited by all this!...NOT that it isn't wonderful to see you so enthusiastic...but we're beginning to fear...for our mental integrity...Is this your inner-girl showing...getting all flustered at the idea of shopping ?"

Harry smirked, a vaguely disquieting sight associated with his girly ruffled get-up "Wait till I show you exactly what I have in mind ! You're going to beg me to go back regularly ! I'm absolutely, one hundred percent sure !" Intrigued in spite of themselves, the Twins couldn't resist to such a subtle challenge. Despite their misgivings (the only contact they had had with the muggle world was through their father disturbing gadgets mania), they found themselves planning an all-day outing, transfiguring clothes, discussing where to apparate, agreeing that too close to the Leaky Cauldron was probably a bad idea, but not knowing any other place, they resolved to simply buy a map and choose where to go from there. A quick look into the state of their prank's stock found made any excuse they could have made vanish. They could afford to skip work for the day, especially since they would have two helpers tomorrow to man the shop, leaving them free to complete their stock and perfect new products to their hearts content.

All in all, in no time they found themselves in possession of a map of muggle London, walking the busy streets. They expected a peaceful day, however Fred, seeing the disapproving looks the passer-by were sending them,turned to his brother. His frown told him that he, too, was aware of the suspicion they were attracting. "Uh, Har...Err...Eleanor, Little Love, are you quite certain you choose the right clothes for us ?...because I'm quite sure those people...are only seconds away from ...calling their Aurors." Looking up from the map, Harry quickly realized that the Twin's assessment was correct. "They're called policemen or Bobbies." he corrected absently. Examining the Twin's clothes, he couldn't find anything suspicious.

Puzzled, he was mulling over this mystery when a middle-aged gentleman approached him, his voice showing a great deal of concern "Excuse me, Miss, but...are you alright ? Where are yours parents ? Shouldn't you be in school ? Did these men do anything to you ?" The fast paced questioning shed some light on the situation and made Harry realize that he better find some realistic answers soon, or they were screwed. Hiding his panic, he took one step back, placed himself between the Twins, took hold of one of their sleeves and responded quietly with a voice as childish as possible "They're my knights, sir... Daddy said not to go anywhere without them. I am to never leave their side."he added candidly, trying to put a trace of fear in his voice "I'm not supposed to talk to strangers." praying he wasn't over-playing he inched behind the twin he had grabbed, pretending to hide his face. The brother's natural reaction to the man's intervention was to draw closer to Eleanor, their attitude clearly protective. The hands that moved slightly to their wand holster made the muggle conclude that they were armed. He answered prudently but seemed still slightly suspicious "Oh, excellent. Good day, then."

Picking up on Harry's act and their public's reactions, the Twins took an almost official attitude, George putting his hand on Harry's shoulder while Fred went forward, opening a passage among the passer-by, their figures dwarfing Harry's, making him disappear between them. They walked for a few minutes, the twins looking for a calm and discrete spot, Harry trying to make himself invisible by blending with them. Finally, they found a small side alley and ducked inside, quickly casting Notice-me-not charms. Once secure, they couldn't refrain from laughing a little nervously."Hahaha...so much for...Haha...discretion!"that was George. "Yeah, added Fred, snickering, we had it all covered, right ? No madame Potage styled improvisation!" "Still, George went on, You seem to have talent for them, Harry!".

Calming himself, Harry explained "You can't continue to call me Harry, you almost slipped a while ago ! I obviously look too young compared to you!" "Well, the Twins answered, we have no problem with playing bodyguards to the young Mistress, you know."continuing "But a make over is obviously in order." Reflecting a little, Harry took out his wand, then transfigured the Twin's simple jeans and shirts into very severe black suits and ties. "That should do it. But, with this kind of set-up, we'll have to shop in the more respectable side of town. We're not in the posh area, that's probably part of why people were so suspicious earlier." Fred commented : "If you want to shop for make-up or pierce your ears, you better make yourself look older, as well." George opined "Right, it shouldn't take much, perhaps higher heels ? You can take our arms to keep your balance and it'll be good training anyway." Seeing Harry nod, he took his wand out and quickly spelled the shoes higher. Harry wobbled. Apparently, balancing himself on three inches heels was MUCH harder than it seemed. Who would have thought one inch or two would make that much difference ? He cautiously paced a few feet back and forth in the Alley, standing within arm reach of the Twins at all times. He tried to stand straight but whatever effort he put into this, he couldn't stop the swaying of his hips. He paced some more, trying different ways to find a walk that was comfortable and didn't expose the top of his stockings with each step. He would have to buy longer skirts.

When Harry declared himself ready, the twins had selected what they thought would be a correct shopping area. They had also kept a firm eye on his progress, particularly on the sway of his hips and the bouncing of his petticoat. Their tourist map was reveling itself to be more useful than they thought initially. Two Apparitions and a Side-along later, they were ready. Emerging discretely from the secluded spot they had selected to reappear, the trio literally stumbled on a perfumery. It was on Harry's list, so they went in, Eleanor filled with determination and the twins with resignation.

The shop atmosphere was heavy with scents and combined with the low lighting, it reminded Harry immediately of Trelawney classroom. Praying for a more fruitful stay than the wasted time spent in the Divination tower, Harry began to scan the shelves for some foundation cream. He hoped it would be sufficient to hide his scar. His escort quickly attracted a saleswoman. She was rather young and mousy looking, appearing a bit average and bland in the somber uniform of the perfumery. But when she spoke, her voice was low and her smile very kind. Harry found her very soothing, he was already relaxing. He began to explain that this was his first time shopping for make up, giving the impression of neglected and lonely young heiress. He mentioned a tomboy childhood and several scars he was now ashamed of and hoped to hide with foundation, perhaps ? His unsure tone prompted the saleswoman to launch into a long explanation on make-up, nail polish and skin-care.

While Harry learned to choose colors adapted to his skin tone and coloration, to apply said make-up to hide his skin's imperfections and to "moisturize dear, you must keep hydrated if you want to have a nice skin", the twins were following a few step behind. Taking advantage of their cover as bodyguards, they were studying the shop, the bright colors of the make up and the explanations they half listened to giving them pranks ideas. The saleslady's progression finally led them to the perfume shelves and she made they try some while explaining how to apply it. She was obviously very good at her job, because they ended up buying much more than they initially wanted, the twins even choosing perfumes for themselves.

Harry was glad to step outside the shop. He could feel the beginning of a headache, between the scents and the explanations. But he happily thought back to his purchases. He had something to hide his scar and the cream was waterproof and should hold at least twelve hours ! He had known he would spend a lot today but between the changing rate from Gallion to Sterling and the huge mountains of gold in the main vault, he was sure it would only become a problem in a few centuries, even if he routinely spend this much. Going back for a minute to the spot they had apparated in, they shrunk their bags and George pocketed the dice sized parcels. They strolled for a while, but only made a few quick stops, mostly to window-shop or to explain something to the twins. The concepts of streetlights, pedestrian crossing and a few other things were proving elusive and Harry made a point to be sure they understood. He could see the speculative glint in the twin's eyes when he mentioned motorcars and bikes.

Harry found several establishments of interest, a huge fitness center especially. He only took the advertizement leaflet, but made a note to himself. Membership allowed access to a swimming pool, dojo and a lot of varied sport classes. The self-defense ones, fencing, martial arts and exotics names such as tai-chi, yoga, etc. sounded interesting. It would be a defense nobody would expect in the wizarding world, he reasoned. Even outside of battle mindset, it was always better to keep in shape. He, particularly, could use some stamina. Some of the sports could perhaps shape his body into something more womanlike. Head in the clouds, he almost missed the entrance of a nice stationary shop. Quickly backpedaling, he dragged the twins inside, making an ample provision of moleskine notebooks in various size and thickness. He had already selected the special one he would use to develop his to do list and note ideas on how to solve his problems. It was leather bound, slightly rigid and his rust color almost came alive with any change in lighting. Its size was perfect, he could carry it around constantly without too much hassle. He would just have to ward it appropriately. He had a brief thought for Hermione when he grabbed a planner of his own free will. He splurged a little on a nice black fountain pen with a chiseled silver nib. The twins had chosen several sheep plastic ones and a wide eventail of colored inks. Probably to experiment if the unholy light in their eyes was any indication.

They shrinked and pocketed the bags again. The twins pockets were beginning to bulge a little. _We will probably need to buy a bag before the day is over, at the rate we are going,_ thought Harry. He cursed his stray thought when they came across the next shop. It seemed to specialize in women's purse, handbags, and anything else conceivable. Firmly telling himself that he would only look at the window, because he had others, more pressing concerns, Harry's gaze only skimmed the display when it fell upon a medium chocolate-hued, crescent-shaped hip-bag with silver wrought clasps. Ignoring the twins snickers at the byplay, he strode inside with a conquering gait. Less than two minute later, they had transferred all the miniature bags to his new purse. He felt a vague inquietude at his attitude. Perhaps he was really turning into a girl ?Or it could be the consumerist-fever uncle Vernon's newspaper talked about...couldn't it be ? Trying to appease himself, he decided that they was nothing wrong with appreciating beautiful things, that he should take advantage of his being a girl, because it gave him more opportunities to do so. He needed a bag anyway : all the other ladies he saw today had one, after all. The leather looked very sturdy and he could probably add some charms to it, to make it bottomless, waterproof and secure it to only his magical signature. Yes, he concluded, nothing to worry about. _I should be complimenting myself on a good decision. Oooh, what a beautiful dress ! Damn it all ! I didn't make all this changes to begin to second-guess myself now ! I'll simply do exactly what I feel like doing, boy-things or girl-things ! Gender issues be damned !_

Slowing down his stroll, he admired several displays, striking a light conversation with his escort. Soon, they very enjoying the weather and debating what make-up related prank to attempt first. Harry promised them a stop in a supermarket to buy some cheaper stuff for experiment sake. "When you're more sure of yourself, I'll let you borrow mine!" This declaration got him teased mercilessly. Their path finally took them to a hairdresser, salon. Telling the twins it was to add to Eleanor's substance and her distance to Harry, he struck a conversation with one of the uncommitted employee. Contrary to the perfumery, the shop was very light and airy, but there too, Harry could smell strange scents. The young employee's flirtatious smile died a little with the twin's menacing stares but he gamely answered all the questions that were thrown at him. He made it a point to fiddle with Harry's hair a lot, giving advices and insisting that he took better care of it. "It's beautiful, but so dreadfully dry ! If you try to dye it now, you'll probably damage it. Perhaps if you went with a natural henna, it wouldn't be too bad, but still..." So Harry brought the dye he wanted and a bottle of hair care product. Fred had murmured to him that they could easily make the change everlasting with a few drops of potions, so he thanked the hairdresser and insisted on using the dye at home. He would have questioned the victorious rictus on Fred and George's faces if they hadn't smoothed their expressions as soon as he lifted his head.

Purchases once again shrunk and put away, a quick Tempus convinced Harry to ask a passer-by for the nearest optometrist office. Luck was with them, it turned out, and half an hour later, he was the proud owner of quite a few pair of colored contact lenses. The range varied from teal to midnight blue through all the range of violets, lilacs, even yellow-green and darker ones. There was a quaint coffee shop a few doors down the street and Harry quickly seized the opportunity to rest his achy feet. It seemed that if one wore heels, one must renounce balance and comfort. The twins looked glad to have the respite, too. He tried to reassure them : "You know, I only really need to get my ears pierced, now. After lunch, we're free to do what we want. We've been exemplary so far, only doing what we had to, so how about we had some fun ? What do you say ? Should I let you choose our next stop ?" The proposition garnered obvious approval, so they concentrated on the next hot and urgent topic : ordering.

Feeling pleasantly full and less energetic, the trio tackled their shopping ordeal again. They leisurely strolled the street, discussing anything that came to think about. Did Harry mind the men trying to flirt with her ? The bewildered look on his face told the twins he hadn't noticed the smiles of the young hairdresser or even the looks the passer by were giving him. Harry confessed, still a little disbelieving "I hadn't realized. I'm afraid I'm pretty used to ignoring people I feel starring at me..." It made the twins laugh and promptly point out that, as Eleanor, there was nothing famous about him and that he should learn to recognize this kind of look. "Well, as long as we're with you, you're quite safe but I'm sure that if we left you alone, even for only a minute, you'll be swamped with would-be Casanovas."

It was easy to see that Harry couldn't bring himself to believe them, but nevertheless, he was quick to steer the conversation away from the awkward topic and to a more pressing one, namely the size of the flat. Did Fred and George think that they would be alright, with three people and the shop experiments all living in the same space ? He pointed out the fact that the girl stuff was taking quite a lot of floor-space. The twins waved his concerns away, saying that they would have to make the great sacrifice of tidying it a little and that, if it really was still cramped, there were enchantments to extend the rooms dimensions on the inside. It was complicated, but it could be done. That remark gave Harry pause. Quickly finding a bench, he took out his notebook and a pen and proceeded to interrogate the twins further, noting all the while. They protested the inquisition (as they called it) a little but when Harry gave the bright green notebook with shiny rainbows swirls he had brought for them, saying that it was their pranks book and perhaps they should note all the wonderful ideas they had this morning, the protests weakened to an end. The ballpoint pen slowed them down a little but they adapted rather well.

Their sunny spot held them for a while, till a Tempus made them realize that it was three PM already, and they still had to find a place that would pierce Eleanor's ears. Deciding that they probably would be more successful if they headed toward a more common side of town, they changed direction. They managed to progress for twenty minutes before the sight of a huge bookshop made Harry squeal and the twins sight. Making big doe eyes, Eleanor turned to them, telling "I swear I'll write the address down and come back another day without you if you want, but please, please, can we look around for a little while ?" Fred put his hands before his eyes, and George exclaimed with a defeated air about him "Alright, Princess, there's no need to take the big weapons out, okay ? It's fine, really." Fred elbowed him, still purposely not looking at Harry. "You wimp !" He made the mistake to shoot a look in the slight boy direction and caved immediately. "Fine ! But it's really only because you're too adorable for your own good!" He could distinctly hear his twins snickering, now. "Promise we'll find fun on the next stop ! Or the piercing parlor, whichever comes first." He finished, mumbling. Harry fairly squealed and dragged the twins by the hands inside the bookshop.

Looking around, disoriented by the sheer volume of books, he spied orientation signs here and there and followed them with great determination towards the more scholarly side of the shop. Walking the wings, he resolutely selectioned a number of varied books from the shelves, piling them onto the twin's arms. Coming at the end of the history section, the last one in the deepest bowels of the shop, he perused the stacks of books dwarfing the twins. _Hum, introduction to various hard sciences, including computing and engineering, biology, anatomy, psychology and psychological warfare, history of war, guerrilla and freedom fighters and more general muggle schooling books...It'll have to do for now...I can always come back, after all. Well, it would be easier with my Apparating license, but I'm sure I can manage the public transportation, too!_ Finishing his review, he realized that the twin's arms had to be hurting and brought them back to the counter. Quietly asking the salesperson if they had any pranks related books while the twins were busy unloading, he added a few more books to the dozen already waiting to be brought.

While the beaming lady rang their purchases, Fred asked her if she knew a place where he could have a piercing made. Only too happy to inform such good customer, she began a detailed explanation, even going as far as drawing them a map. Exiting the book shop after fifteen minutes of intense shopping, Harry drew them behind a street corner and made them shrink the whole lot. His new bag was going to be a lot heavier and he worried that it would be damaged until he saw George cast the Featherlight charms on the small parcels. Berating himself for forgetting such an obvious solution, Harry beamed to the boys and mischievously informed them that they were books for them in the lot. Seeing them try to hide twin grimaces, he laughed and explained what exactly the books were about. That got him promptly hugged.

Feeling quite relieved that the twins didn't resent him and finally seeing the end of their shopping trip, Harry began to study the map the saleslady had given. It didn't seem to be very far. And indeed, four streets away, they came across a small tattoo parlor that advertised piercing too. The tattoo pictures in the window made a beautiful display, some very bright, some sharply contrasted in black and white. There seemed to be a wide choice of designs. Pushing the door, they entered.

The twins began immediately to snoop around, while Harry waited for someone to show up, feeling a powerful surge of relief at the almost clinical cleanliness of the shop. The faint smell of chemicals reminded him of Hogwart's Hospital Wing. Those memories weren't especially comforting, but he got the feeling that they took good care of their customers. During Harry's reflections, a slender man had emerged from the back of the shop, his body a walking advertisement for his craft. He was bald, and apart from his face, there wasn't an inch of unclothed skin not covered by tattoos. A dark eyebrow rose at the sight the trio made inside his shop, one slight girl in peach ruffles and two burly men in black suits acting like children. Clearly, it wasn't what he usually expected from his customers.

Harry quickly asked him about ear piercing, trying to distract him and he called for a colleague, explaining that he himself specialized in the tattooing side of the business. The young woman that appeared then only differed from the man by the presence of short curly bright green hair and different tattoos. She seemed to favor colorful jungle flowers over the complex black interlacing designs her colleague exhibited. Her eyebrow and shins were pierced. All in all, she made Harry think of an exotic rainforest. As she set to work on his ear's, the man began to teach the twins about his craft. He prided himself in realizing unique tattoos. He apparently designed them after careful consideration and discussions with his clients. His voice was very animated, and his enthusiasm contagious. He proceeded to explain that every aspect of a tattoo was important, especially the more discrete ones. According to him, there couldn't be beautiful tattoos without a meaningful reason to get them. Then there was the location to consider. Different sites on the body had different meanings that impacted the overall design effect. There were hidden tattoos and obvious displays. Then there was the design itself, the choice of the inks... They stayed for about half an hour, and promised to come back. The piercing itself took no time at all, but they quite enjoyed the lecture and the following story telling and discussion.

Harry couldn't help but finger his newly pierced ears. They were slightly painful and bleeding a little. The girl tattoo artist, Moira, had said that this was to be expected, especially at the beginning. She obviously didn't know about magic, as it took George only a muttered spell to heal his earlobes. Thanking him, Harry cheerfully announced that he was done and at the entire disposition of Messrs. Weasley. That declaration won him beaming smiles from both Fred and George. Loosing the ties of their suits and unbuttoning the collar of their shirts, they dragged him to yet another alley and transfigured their suits jacket and shirt into more colorful patterned fabrics. The next shop after the tattoo parlor was a big hardware and electronic one. They spent what seemed like hours inside, Harry patiently explaining the purpose of television, DVD, hi-phi system and Walkman, CD's, phones and mobiles, computers and laptops. He knew very little about their inner-working and had only limited knowledge of the ways to use a computer, but he could explain the theory. Fred and George were fascinated. George loved the music playing technology and Fred seemed quite taken by the concept of films and television. Harry then explained that they were shop dedicated only to CD's, because the music producing industry was a huge part of the muggle 's culture and quickly reassured Fred that the same was true for films and that they were places to rent them, too, the system similar to that of a library. He briefly told the of cinemas, promising that they would make time to go to the movies. Harry, himself could see the potential the laptops offered, especially the internet connected ones.

By five o'clock, they were back on the street, discussing passionately the best way to allow electronics to run into magic saturated areas. Both the twins and Harry were convinced items such as at these would be an instant hit with all the muggleborns and muggleraised. Harry pointed out that, if they could work a solution that withstood Hogwart's concentration of magics, the trend would probably quickly spread to even pureblooded children. Realizing that the excitement level made it a moot point to continue shopping, and carefully writing down the address of the electronics store for future reference, they resolved to apparate back to their flat.

"Look, as much as I want to be able to have a TV in the flat, we probably should begin with something less delicate." declared Harry. "Well, we don't have to...Right ! If we can find a way...to isolate electronics from magics...to protect them...we'll be able to use... directly the muggle ones !" The twins were excited, and it clearly showed in their manner of speech. "What about power sources ?" cut Harry. "How will you power them ? If you try to install a generator to produce electricity, you'll probably blow up the flat sooner or later, even if you protect it !" That made them pause for a minute, before they looked at each other, grinning, and chorused "We'll just have to find something to transform magic into electricity!". Harry slowly beamed, feeling his enthusiasm raising too. It had always been very difficult to keep the twins good mood from infecting him. "That 'll take a lot of work, but it's a genius idea !...for a beginning." Before the brother's smiles fell completely, he explained himself. "Right, because then the magic will probably use the electronics much quicker than they would normally. And that's expensive items we're talking about, so it would probably not dispense us from searching for a more wizarding solution...But I still think it's an excellent starting point ! And you'll have a lot of time to work on it, since you'll have Ron and myself to man the shop." The twins were fairly vibrating with the need to begin right now.

They let themselves fall on the living room sofa, taking their new green notebook out, noting ideas rapidly. Harry could hear some of their mumbling. "research spells with lightning...magic-nullifying and dampening wards...Maybe we should ask Bill to collaborate on this one ?..." Flipping a few pages, they fell upon the pranks ideas from this morning, jotting quick notes about potions and various ingredients, trying to estimate how much make up they would need to buy to experiment upon. Seating himself in an armchair, Harry's first reaction was to sight and take off his shoes, lightly massaging his aching toes and soles.

Grabbing his purse, he began to extract every shrunken bag and restore them to their original size. He was quickly flooded by parcels and his battle against multiplying shopping bags, some quite heavy, was punctuated by the twins laughter at his predicament. Extracting himself from the mound of packages, Harry began to sort them out, levitating them in heaps : those were going to the bathroom, this one were the twin's, this one was for him. Looking around the rest of the flat, Harry began to organize the relics of yesterday shopping trip, too and to divide his piles into smaller ones. Giving the twins the pranks books he had gotten for them, he ignored the exclamation of delight to concentrate of clearing them a little living space, starting in the living-room and working through the bedroom and bathroom.

Flopping back on his armchair again, he extracted his personal notebook and studied the stacks of books he had made along the living room wall to find the ones about wizarding culture and girly advices. He came back with three heavy tomes and promptly spread them on the coffee table in front of him. That attracted the twin's curiosity. Fred tilted his head, reading the titles on the spines before him. All You Ever Needed To Know About Wizarding Society And All You Would Have Preferred To Ignore, Incarnate Perfection : One Thousand Spells And Potions to Shine, and Knock Them Dead ! Girl's Indispensable Beauty Secrets. A raised eyebrow was the only commentary he made. But the books had obviously titillated his curiosity, because he rose and went to examine the rest of Harry's small library. The books from the Potter vault were still in the pouch Griphook gave them. It was probably wise not to left them lying around, in case an unexpected visitor showed himself but it wasn't really practical, either.

Leafing through his selected tomes, Harry wondered where to begin. Selecting another moleskine notebook, this one bigger and thicker in a dark red color he inscribed it firmly his name, Eleanor in net block letters. Pausing for a moment, he congratulated himself on his idea to write exclusively with a fountain pen. His handwriting was much neater and more elegant than his usual messy one. _Ah, the difference the right tool could make ! I'll probably have to make effort in the beginning to write more elegantly, but it's already pretty good ! _In a few pages, when he would have accustomed the fountain pen to his hand, nobody would be able to recognize his writing ! Studying the summaries of the beautifying books, he started to mark out the interesting pages with brightly colored stickers. He would deal with wizards customs after dinner. Topics such as women's place in society, views on accepted sexuality and muggleborn regulations were probably best affronted after fortifying oneself, he justified.

Thinking back to this morning and the salesperson's advices, he began to classify the spells and potions by the body part they concerned. hair, skin, nails care, then make up, nail polish, clothes cleaning and maintenance, etc. He reminded himself that his priorities were useful, everyday spells first, then basic girl-care for his disguise. _It was good of the twins to invent me a __disguise that would strongly compel me to take care of myself,_ he thought. Smiling slightly, he began to carefully write up potions recipes, triple checking and comparing the books as he went, taking time to consider the advices and annotations. It took him a solid hour. Standing and stretching, he remarked that the twins, the muggle pranks books and several notebooks had disappeared from view. He could still hear exclamations, mutters and incantations, through, so he didn't think he needed to worry more than usual where Fred and George were concerned. Which meant that he should move the armchair to face the direction the sounds were coming from. No need to tempt the little devils with an easy prey, after all.

Flipping back to the spell portion of his notebook, he called his new wand from his holster and set about to learn the incantations that would occupy a good portion of his life from now on. Concentrating on the task at hand, Harry forbid himself to ponder the strangeness that had taken possession of his life. Yes, he was a fifteen year-old wizard celebrity learning to cast charms to tie pretty bows and lace up a corset properly with a contraband wand, which was completely illegal by the way, and yes, he was determined to become the epitome of womanhood, at least in public and, as far as he could tell, quite happy about it. _At least, I'm not boring._ This thought was quickly followed by gratefulness : okay, he was maybe the strangest wizard he had ever met (which, considering the wizarding world, was saying a lot), but he stood much better chances at survival and happiness, than, say, two days ago. And THAT he reminded himself, was the point. Now, getting back to hair-untangling spells...

By the time Fred and George emerged from the downstairs small pranks-testing area, Harry was carefully brewing potions and perhaps what could be dinner in the kitchen and warned them that he would camp in the bathroom for a good while after dinner, to "work on Eleanor" as he put it. At that, the twins grinned widely and declared that they came bearing gifts for the lady in question. Fred, seeing Harry's alarmed look, set to clarify "We solemnly swear that we aren't up to no good, Princess." George continued "As my esteemed brother said." "...We only...made your dye everlasting...and put to work one of our cleverest inventions...you know we're not normally this modest...but, really, you'll be impressed!...We combined all your colored lenses...into one permanent set...that 'll bond to your retinas...and will probably respond...to your wishes...what do you say Beautiful ?"

Still slightly suspicious, Harry prudently responded that it sounded grand and could they perhaps explain they brilliant reasoning in small steps to this clueless girl to help her understand ? So the twins did and despite all earlier misgivings, Harry found himself genuinely impressed. As he bottled his potions and put the fire out from under their dinner, he asked about the remaining pairs of contact lenses. The twins explained that they were now transparent but would be used in new prank items to give one animal pupils. They thought the falcon look, for example, would probably be a hit with quidditch players. Harry responded pensively "You could make snake one for the Slytherins and so on with the other Hogwarts houses. You could even make pranks package for each House, you know, with variation on each product. The hair dying one we were speaking about for example..."Before the twins could add anything, he went on with a sharp and slightly dangerous look in his eyes; "You could even make bright red ones with slit pupils for the courageous souls wanting to mock Voldymart. They could be part of Death Munchers package with edible Dark Mark and so on. I'm sure you'll have ideas."

"You gave us at least dozen of them !" George shouted, his hands gesturing to Fred who was frantically writing in their prank notebook. "Dozens, hundreds, thousands, trillions of them !" laughing, he grabbed Harry around the waist and started to twirl him around the living room in a crazy Valse. The madness went on for a few minutes, only interrupted by the loud grumbling noises emitted by an anonymous stomach. The red spots on Harry's cheeks gave him away immediately and they seated themselves cheerfully, vigorously attacking the younger one's cooking. The meal was filled with good cheer, pranks ideas tossed back and forth rapidly. This was the theory stage, the twins explained to Harry.

"It's a good thing you gave us this notebook, you know. Even if we don't know yet how to make the exact pranks we're planning, if we keep the ideas somewhere maybe we'll be able to do them later, when we've learned more." Harry added excitedly "I could help you keep all your notes straight. With the corresponding experiment and everything else. I wanted to research ways to wards my notebooks, and it'll probably be useful for you too. Fireproof, waterproof, password protected and so on. It would be even easier with a computer but, well, I'm sure we could manage with paper archives. We'll just need space." The twins opined, chiming in "We should probably try to document what we remember from our earlier pranks. We were much slower because Mum kept finding our notes and destroying our prototypes. Harping at us to study more, be more serious, blabla blabla."

Harry hesitated "Your mum kinda have a point, through." he went on quickly "Not about the being serious part. When you're clearly so brilliant at what you do and enjoy it to boot, why do something else ? No, I mean, maybe you should study with me for my OWL and Newts. I know you passed your Owls already, and mine should have been two years ago, but the material and the theory could probably help with the pranking. Runes and Arithmancy would probably help, too. Plus, it would get your Mum to back off a bit, don't you think ?" Fred and George didn't reply right away. They were clearly weighting their options. When they agreed, Harry was pretty certain it was the possibility of pacifying their mother that made the balance tip. Mrs. Weasley was quite the formidable witch, after all. Especially her voice.

Not long after, the meal drew to a close, and the twins insisted they would deal with the clean up. He was to go to the bathroom with his potions and work on Eleanor. They added that the special lenses would better be installed a little before bedtime, so that his eyes could get used to the contacts then have a long period of inaction to bond with the material. So Harry went, gathering his Eleanor's notebook, his potions and the pile of bags belonging to the bathroom. Hesitating a little, he grabbed the wizarding culture book too, reminding himself that some potions should stay on for a while before rinsing them and that he shouldn't try to do several at the same time, as he had no idea of the reaction they could have to each other. Resigning himself to a VERY long stay in the bathroom, he went on, feeling tentatively hopeful. After all, he had liked shopping for dresses and he loved the feels of his new clothes. Even today, as exhausting as it was, had been enjoyable. So, maybe he would like this kind of pampering, too. He closed the bathroom door on that thought, having seen his nightgown on the bathroom's chair, where he left it this morning.

Undressing and carefully folding his dirty clothes on the same chair, he turned to his collection of bottles and boxes. Clearing a little space beside the sink, he organized them by function : hair product, make up, nails products, skin products, and so on. _It would be stupid of me to try to shave my head permanently, after all !_ Showering and washing his hair with the shampoo he brewed, followed by the mask from the cute hairdresser, took him a while. Exiting, he proudly and carefully cast the spells he had learned earlier in the evening, untangling and his hair and blowing them dry. They looked more silky, now, and smoother to the touch. So the products would really make a difference, after all ! He had been a little skeptical. He could probably gain a little time with more experience in caring for it, he thought, drying his hair with his wand was more complicated than it looked. It demanded concentration to be able to maintain the spell and direct it at the same time.

Reaching for the next tin box, he opened it and found hair-removal cream. It would be permanent, so he should probably be careful and tie his hair securely out of the way. Flipping his notebook to the hairstyling portion, he reviewed the spell to braid hair for a few minute before trying. It didn't look so bad, he thought. Realizing that his braid was still quite long, the end brushing the small of his back, he wound it across his head like a hairband, before attempting an unflappable charm. It took him three tries but he achieved a correct result, the charm feeling quite strong on his head and only applying itself to his hair. Who knew girl's spells demanded such fine-tuned control on one's magic ? It was probably why most girls seemed to do it the muggle way. Well, it would be excellent exercises anyway. He was better with powerful spells as Harry. Control could only improve him. And he wouldn't tire as easily in difficult situations.

Ready at least, Harry began to apply the cream liberally everywhere on his legs, arms, belly, groin, chest and cheeks. The paste had to stay for thirty minutes and should burn a little but without becoming painful. He would have to do it once a week for four weeks to have a perfect result. _Then, adios yucky body hair ! I hope it's worth it, because it won't do any good to my skin. It's so dry and rough. _Casting Tempus, he noted the time and grabbed All You Need To Know About Wizarding Society And All You Would Have Preferred To Ignore. Taking a deep, steadying breath, he began to read. Occasionally casting Tempus (the paste could leave ugly burn scars if left for too long), his wait was thoroughly uncomfortable. Practically all his skin was burning, except his scalp, which tingled from the charm and the unfamiliar hairdo. His mind was growing nauseated at some of the laws and dispositions on marriage, magical being's relations, women's rights and the work. Reminding himself firmly that this was the portion of the book pertaining to the early Middle-Ages and that there had they had had the chance, many times over, to make significant changes meanwhile, Harry felt VERY relieved when his charm told him it was time to wash the paste off.

Getting into the shower, he turned the water on cold, because, apparently, the colder the rinse-off, the more effective the paste. Careful to avoid splashing his hair with the soiled water, he scrubbed himself thoroughly from face to toes. Washing himself again, just to stay on the safe side, he exited, dried himself again (more practice, he told himself) and grabbed the next cream, which was an intense body moisturizer. He started the process to scrub himself completely for the second time tonight. At least this cream had a light floral scent he found pleasing, and felt very soothing on his abused but smooth skin.

The next step was the hair dye. Praying Merlin the twins hadn't played a prank on him, he nullified his spell and began to undo his plait. Shaking his hair around himself, he grabbed the dye and knelt in front of the shower. Wetting his hair, he smeared them as thoroughly as possible with the dye, emptying the bottle completely and trying to avoid staining his clean body. Next, he had to torsade them and put on the ridiculous plastic hat for at least thirty minutes. Setting an alarm charm, Harry grabbed the book again, studying himself in the mirror from time to time, feeling a little reassured each time he saw his hair hadn't taken any strange and bright colors.

Ten minutes in his wait, he still hadn't read more than half a page, resolving to try the nails products instead. It was almost like painting he thought as he applied the clear polish to his newly cut toenails. By the time his finger nails were dry and spelled resistant, Harry had to warm the water in the shower. The dye, it seemed, was the exact contrary of the depilatory paste (which was frighteningly logical by wizarding standard) and worked best with very hot rinsing. Maybe their world has stood so long only because witches were working on it ? It was a strangely believable and invigorating thought to Harry's mind. Kneeling again, he vanished the plastic hat and grabbed the shower head. The water felt boiling hot to him and ran brown-black down the drain. Still strictly following the instructions, he rinsed his hair till the water ran clear again before re-applying the nourishing mask to his hair. Waiting, rinsing, untangling and drying his hair almost felt like routine by now and he marveled at human's capacity to adapt. _Two days ago,_ he reminded himself, _I was an abused boy with a widely spread reputation, too much problems and no one truly on my side. Well, I still have as much problems as before and perhaps I added others to the list, he reminded himself. But at least, it was my choice...And I'm no longer convinced I'll die solving them. Hum, well, Harry should still die a dozen days from now. Strange what your programmed death can do to you. _

Quickly spelling his hair plaited again, he finished his ablutions, washing his face with the special stuff, applying some cream and plucking his eyebrows with application (and the advice of the saleslady in mind). Stepping back and quickly straightening the bathroom, he put his nightgown on before releasing the spell on his hair. His dark locks looked more chocolaty-brown than black, now. Rare auburn highlights showed under the light. He found he liked the look it gave him. Examining his reflection, Harry found himself very feminine. He couldn't pinpoint exactly what made such a big difference. Maybe it was in his head. Maybe it was the whole work he put into his disguise. But he could feel Eleanor's story and the reality of her appearance converging, creating a sense of rightness. Subconsciously, he hadn't been able to refer to himself as Eleanor even in his thoughts. Now, however, he had no problem doing it. He could see and feel the distance growing between him and Harry Potter.

There would probably be set-backs and he would have to concentrate hard on maintaining a balance, through. Harry should be hidden at all costs and all traces of his transformation removed or concealed. Meaning he should urgently research ways to secure his notebooks, his scars and the Potters heirlooms (or have a VERY good explanation ready). On the flip side, he should solidify Eleanor as much as possible. Which meant air-tight records, an excellent cover-story and a new, girly behavior. But he mustn't let himself forget certain part of Harry Potter : his responsibilities, the constant danger, the very real possibility that all their efforts would be for naught if anybody could get inside their heads. And Harry's head was constantly at risk. _Well, _concluded Harry,_ it's good to see that I have my priorities straight._

_In the interest of credibility, maybe I should establish a motto for the Sade family. Mmm, the Chinese curse, perhaps. Should do nicely. 'May you leave in interesting times.'_ On that note, he exited the bathroom to find the twins eagerly waiting for him on their bed. _Right._ The thought attacked his brain like lightning. _I had almost forgotten. HOW COULD I ?_

_WE'RE SHARING A BED !_

Quizzical eyebrows clued Eleanor in on the fact that her face probably displayed a peculiar expression. Trying to explain as much as possible while avoiding long winded rants, all she could do was declare softly : "I really feel like Eleanor Sade, now." The smiles she got in answer were tender.

In slightly hushed voices, the twins taught her how to pool some magic in his hands, concentrating on what she wanted the contacts to do for her. The more precise the specifications the better, they said. They slowly deposed the small case in her joined hands and waited for the magical glowing aura to resorb itself inside the lenses.

Still speaking softly, they instructed her on how to put the contacts on, keep her eyes open for two minutes then closed for another two minutes. No more than fifteen minutes in soft lighting before going to sleep. They had prepared a make shift eye mask for the night. "Ten hours at least, miss Eleanor." They gently ordered.

"One last gift before bed for the young lady." George announced with a flourish. Turning around to face him, Eleanor had to squint a little. "Are your eyes alright, Little Love ? Is your vision blurry ? It should dissipate within a few minutes, that's the lenses adjusting to your specifications. The more extensive they were, the longer it'll take. If, however, your vision isn't back to normal when we tell you to get to bed, you must tell us. It'll mean we failed and we'll have to try again."

"Your two minutes are up, Princess. Close your eyes for the next phase." Fred told Eleanor, embracing her from behind, his chin resting on her head. His muscular hands on her eyes blocking all light. "Can I try to guess what my present is ?" She asked, pouting a little at the delay. She had had so few present before, and none outside the last Christmases and birthdays. Fred's low laughter was resounding inside her chest. She could feel every vibrations of his ribcage against her back through the thin silk of her nightgown.

"Right" It was George's voice. "Let's play twenty questions. Begin whenever you're ready, Beautiful." So they played. "Is it alive ? Can I use it ? Do I wear it ?" and so it went, until the two minutes were up and Eleanor was quite certain it was shoes, but the twins were adamant it wasn't. Slowly opening her eyes again, Eleanor immediately realized that the only light came from candles glowing. Her second observation was that George's face in front of her was much clearer than last time. She was so relieved she immediately said so, forgetting about her mystery gift for a minute. That got her a tightening of Fred's embrace and a victorious smirk from George. Finally casting her sight on her knights offering, she gaped. "It's shoes ! I knew it !" Laughter came from either side simultaneously. "it's not!" They chorused. "They're indoors slippers ! Spelled for comfort. Come on, try them on."

A little dubious, Eleanor grabbed the four inches open slippers, that looked very much like regular stilettos heels in her opinion and put them on. Her feeling of wonder was probably visible because more teasing laughter erupted. She didn't care. Why wasn't every shoes she owned spelled like that ? There were just so comfortable, more than any pair of slippers she had ever owned. Admittedly, that wasn't a lot, only two pairs as her feet grew very little during Hogwart. _But still !_ She rounded the bed to hug George, before backtracking and hugging Fred. She couldn't help smiling, determined to spend her fifteen minutes before her curfew on her feet.


	6. Chapter 6 : Monday, the 24th of June

**Little word of warning : there'll be a little bit of below the waist action as the relationship between Harry and the Twins become more complex. You've been warned !**

**Chapter Six**

Harry's first reaction on the morning was to try and remember which day it was and how much time they had before his death. The wording of his thought spooked him a little and he forced himself to come back to the here-and-now, instead of fretting about their plans. For the third morning in a row, the world consisted of sharing warmth and subconscious caresses with hard bodies under comfy blankets. Harry's appreciation for reality had never been so high. Trying to identify which body part belonged to Fred, to George and to himself was a fun game, as was guessing how they ended up with this particular mix up. Realizing that the bunched silk he could feel around his hips and the top of his thighs was his nightgown led him to several other conclusions : it seemed that his hair had winded themselves around Fred's neck like a scarf. His hair weren't normally this long and his bed wasn't used to host so many bodies. In fact, it was doubtful that his bed would resist the added weight. So he wasn't in his bed at the Dursley's.

It took him less than a minute to remember everything. _How in the seven hells could I remember Harry's death but forget the rest ?_ He puzzled the mystery for a while, snuggling back into the twin's body heat and relaxing. Still drowsy, he remembered Eleanor's birth bit by bit. The last recollection to come back was his intense satisfaction and, dare he say it ? Happiness from the night before. Becoming a girl was probably the best thing to ever happen to him...he didn't find this thought twisted anymore, or, rather, he felt more able to appreciate the dark irony of his life's story. There were many potential threats to his continued happiness as Eleanor. The one he felt was the worst, the most heart wrenching one, was probably the fact that, even if he succeeded with everything else, he would end up being betrayed by his own body. He would never grow breasts. His lack of chest could be imputed to the abuse for a while, but after a time, even this excuse wouldn't hold.

Harry sighed and told himself, once more, to make note of this concern and come back to it later, when the more urgent problems (the life-threatening ones) would be dealt with. It was a shame to be unable to appreciate his present situation, particularly as he didn't know how long his good fortune would last. Fred and George could wake up any moment, after all. If he was to take his guilty pleasure at being held as they slept, the least he could do was to make the most of it. So, for the first time, Harry very slowly and carefully began to trail his fingertips on the skin at his disposition. Even then, his mind was on overdrive. Thoughts raced through his head.

_Did the twins appreciate his female form ? _He hadn't paid particular attention to their reactions, but they DID call him "Beautiful" after all._ Perhaps it was a mocking nickname ?_ But no, they had told him yesterday that he should pay better attention to his surrounding less he found himself drowning in a sea of fan boys. _But this was surely teasing as well, right ?_ He realized suddenly that he wanted the twins to find him beautiful. He would have to watch them very carefully to distinguish what they found attractive.

_Well, they seem to appreciate my body just fine, it seems._ He wriggled his hips a little, trying to find the sensations from the first day again. One of the twin's shaft had been firmly lodged in the crack of his ass, spreading his cheeks and rubbing against his hole. _Who knew that such a place could be so sensitive ?_ He remembered it taken all his shame at the teasing of the twins catching in the act of enjoying himself AND the rising of all his insecurities to deflate himself. _It was just that good. _Harry felt that he was learning a lot about his own body. It seemed that he ignored a lot of things about himself. _I didn't think I would ever realize that I didn't knew myself. How ironic !_

_Forget it, it's probably just a natural, unconscious reaction. Morning wood. It had probably nothing to do with my body specificly. It could be anyone and it would be the same._ His thoughts were anguished now. He would probably have gone back to his earlier state of black mood, had the twin behind him (he was almost certain it was George) not snuggled into him, bringing his burning cock in the position Harry sought just moments before.

_Ooohh!_ Harry couldn't help but arch his back into the sensations, rubbing his ass against George's body. He was lost in the arousing feelings, his head totally void of everything not linked to his senses for once. He could feel George's penis hardening against his ass, growing in size, length and hardness. His chest was pressed against Fred's, the delicious friction of the silk combined to Fred's warmth pebbling his nipples instantaneously. Harry felt certain he was going to come.

Opening the eyes he was unaware he had closed, to try to not lose himself completely in the moment, his gaze fell upon Fred's face. His eyes were open and gleaming with a strange expression. Harry froze. His neck craned back to see more of Fred's body, trying to decipher the meaning of his expression. His body was strung as a bow. Harry was at a loss.

Until Fred slipped a thigh between his legs and began to trust against him, his face still fierce, his eyes burning as they stared at Harry with an unnerving intensity. Said boy was coming undone. Unable to control himself even slightly, he opted to let go. His hips were dancing between the twin's. Left arm trapped underneath his body and Fred's, right arm grabbing frantically at Fred's back, trying desperately to get a grip on sweaty muscles. His body was straining between two delicious point of friction. Two burning infernos of pleasure. The twin's arms were steel band around him, preventing his flight. Not that he could even think about fleeing.

He was burning.

And rocking. Trying for more friction. More heat.

More everything.

He wasn't in any state to word his needs but his voice didn't need words. Mewls escaped him. Lustful moans, deep in his chest. He could feel the groans and grunts from the twins all the way through his core. They resonated inside him. Harry's whole body was vibrating.

Head thrown back, eyes unseeing, mouth open, panting, moaning, Harry felt primal.

Free.

Soaring.

Then all of a sudden, there was a blinding white light.

When Harry came to, he could feel bodies on either side of him. It was hard not to. He was clearly imprisoned in their tight embrace. It took him a few moment to remember his first wake up call. Disbelieving, after all, four days ago, he had never even thought about sex, never-mind boy-sex, he tried to tell himself it was probably all a dream, a fantasy, however fantastic he remembered it was.

However, denial lasted only long enough to realize that the dampness on his nightgown was as definite a proof as the expectant expressions on Fred and George's faces. His body was still tingling in unusual places and he felt oddly mellow for all his embarrassment. Harry could feel himself flush deeply under the twin's scrutiny. Trying to flee the bed, the trap of Fred's and George's embrace closed once more around him, forbidding any and all escape attempt. Uncertain, he opened his mouth but soon discovered that his voice failed him completely. Closing it again, he waited, eyes on his lap to avoid their gazes.

Fred and George exchanged several telling glances before clearing their throat. The silence was deepening in the bedroom. Harry began to feel oppressed. Panic was only seconds away when, finally, the twins spoke.

"Are you alright ?" They seemed worried. Harry stuttered through his response, trying to reassure the twins out of habit. They didn't buy it. Their doubting gazes gave Harry pause and he took stock of his body. He was still feeling oddly light, but his skin was burning in very strange places, namely his groin, ass and chest. Hesitantly, he relayed his conclusions to Fred and George. Their reaction was weird. Twin eyebrows seemed to rise of their own volition and the brother exchanged a heavy glance. Fred was apparently the designed spokesperson. "That's perfectly normal, Little Love. It's your body feeling good. Let's wash and dress and pursue this discussion over breakfast, okay ?"

Moderately appeased, Harry opined and rose from the bed. But not so quickly that the twins hadn't the time to lay kisses on his head. He felt the tingle of magic and his nightgown and thighs were suddenly dry and clean again. Putting his new slippers on, Harry had the feeling he was also getting into his new skin. She could hear a quick paced whispered conversation begin behind him as she closed the door to the bathroom.

She showered and went through Eleanor morning rituals with much more confidence and speed than the day before. Wrapped in a towel, she tiptoed into the bedroom to grab clothes. The twins seemed to be in the kitchen but she took no chances. She needed a little more time before confronting what happened this morning.

So she concentrated instead on the luxurious feels of his underwear and stockings. And if his skin was more sensitive than usual, almost provoking another hard-on, she ignored it with resolve. She put on the fluid lilac dress she had selected earlier and examined himself in the mirror. The new, warmer coloring of his hair and auburn reflects were enhanced by the shimmering color of the dress. It left his shoulders bare, accentuating instead the arch of his neck, to which she tied a bow. His thin waist and neckline were underlined with bands of heavy embroidery in gold and dark lilac. A third band of embroidery tied around his ribcage made the fabric of the dress bunch up, hiding his lack of chest and caressing his still raised nipples.

She had examined his body after his earlier shower. To see if his sensations were accompanied by physicals differences. It was probably the first time he paid it so much attention ( and care what with Eleanor's numerous products. But he would continue, his skin was much softer and healthier already.) She had noticed straight away the higher coloration of his skin and the small mounds on his chest. She was very lightly muscled, and his entire pectorals had risen, the nipples themselves pebbled tightly. His skin still felt very tender, and now that she knew it, every brush against his flesh made him shiver. It was as if his skin was discovering its ability to feel and compensated for years of pain by being oversensitive. Exiting the bathroom, she slipped his high heeled slippers back on, intending to relish the gift from the night before, just in case the twins took them back. She didn't think it was very likely, but she suddenly felt the need to be as beautiful as possible. She backtracked inside the bathroom and resolutely took the black eyeliner and mascara from the day before.

She made a very touching figure as she moved into the kitchen slowly. Dress undulating with the sway of his hips on the high shoes, tentative demeanor and unsure face, attempting to hide behind his lock of hair. When she looked at them through his lashes, the twins forgot to breathe. The new lenses made his eyes appear almost purple. The dark shadows of the make up made everything else disappear in comparison of his eye-color. Seeing his potions on the table, Harry took them immediately, more out of a desire to occupy himself that anything else.

Realizing that he was seriously worried made the twins react. Fred dished him breakfast while George directed him to sit on his lap. Remembering the warm embrace that had soothed him so in Gringotts, just two days earlier, Harry sat without hesitation. Fred let him eat for a while, before softly questioning him. Had she already felt anything like this morning ? Did she want to ask any question ? Yes, that was sex. Yes, she had had an orgasm. No, it wasn't the only kind of sex boys could have. No, they weren't gay, but bisexual. Did she want to know more about sex between boys ?

_Did she ? _The answer was instantaneous, where she was only tentative before. _Yes. _She wanted to. Very much so. But she wasn't in a position to do this kind of things now. She was supposed to be a girl, damn it ! And there was also the no so small fact that she hadn't realized the male form attracted him before the twins. Now that she thought about it, no one had really excited him before the twins. Right, she was learning about sex at almost sixteen, and with not one but TWO men ! Why couldn't his life ever be simple ? Harry lifted pleading eyes to Fred.

"We're volunteering to teach you, Beautiful." murmured George in his ear. "But before you answer...We must warn you...we're VERY possessive...of what's ours...and...if you accept...you'll be ours...to care for...to teach...to caress...perhaps to scold...What do you say?... Can you belong...to George and me...Eleanor ?"

Harry's smile when she nodded to respond was very bright. Happiness, relief, enthusiasm shone through. She silently vowed to take very good care of the twins in return. That was his last thought for a while, because George grabbed his chin gently, turned his face towards him and kissed him.

His lips were warm, like his body, and tenderly pressing against Harry's mouth, caressing his lips with a myriad of tinny butterfly kisses. He continued for what Harry felt was several minutes before backing out a little to press their forehead together and playfully rub their noses against each other. George face was very soft, except for his rough whiskers, unlike Harry's. Across the table, Fred was beaming. Getting up, he rounded the table to stand in front of the fey boy in the dress. Cupping his face between his hands, he tipped Harry's head back and leaned on him to seal the accord.

Fred's kiss was different. His tongue was lightly tracing Harry's lips and when she parted his lips, it slid inside his mouth, stroking his palate, teasing his own tongue. Harry had never felt anything like this. She loved the fact that Fred was touching him inside his body. She discovered the motions, the tastes, the difficulty to breathe correctly. It was heady. His body was throbbing. It could be George's hands, caressing his thighs under his dress, circling his waist, massaging his chest. His nipples were so hard and tight they were hurting. George seemed to delight in torturing them, rubbing, twisting, cupping, pinching. She was moaning again, inside Fred's mouth this time. The sound made his tongue tremble and communicated itself to its playing partner. The sheer physicality of it was irresistible.

Harry's hands were clutching Fred's. When he finally released his lips and let him pant quietly, he burrowed his head in Harry's neck, imitating his twin and worshiping the honeyed neck with kisses and light bites. In an unconscious move, Harry tipped his head back on George's shoulder, leaving the entire expanse of his neck bare, save for an untied ribbon. The fey body was trembling heavily, almost convulsing on George's lap.

The twins calmed the pace and slowly, very reluctantly, let go of his body after a last squeeze. "Eat" they said. "Finish your breakfast." Harry's body was at once cold, bereft of touch and burning in memory of said touches. As George tied back the lilac ribbon around his throat, she was certain she would be feeling the imprint of their mouths and hands on him for the entire day. His chest felt raw, the soft fabric of the dress chaffing his abused nipples, sending small residual tingles of aching pleasure along his nerves endings. His panties had become some sort of torture device, the silk adding to the simulation, especially where it was pulled tight on his groin and crevice, rubbing his hole.

Harry tried to concentrate on the day's programmed events instead of his newly discovered sensitivity on surprising body areas or the fact that she had no idea what his relationship with the twins would evolve into. Resolving to observe their behavior and generally pay very close attention to anything related to them, she gathered his courage and lifted his head from his breakfast to find that only Fred remained in the kitchen. His puzzling look won him a quick explanation : "Bathroom."

It was all it took to restore the atmosphere to comfortable levels of friendly banter. They went over the duties of the shopkeeper which consisted essentially in explaining the products to the customers and operating the cash register. Harry asked with trepidation when Ron arrived normally. She didn't feel very confident right now, with the way his body was feeling and anxiousness took possession of him. Ron was one of the people who had spent the most time with him. He was one of the most threatening for his disguise. Fred promised him more time before the confrontations and the discussion continued till he replaced his twin in the bathroom.

George gave him the tour of the shop, explaining about the few products that Harry didn't already knew about. By the time the last shelf had been examined, they had to open the shop. The twins promised assistance should there be an issue and left him alone. Heartened, Harry tried to shift into Eleanor's mindset and turned to greet the first customer.

By midday, Eleanor was ravenous and a little shell-shocked at how well the twin's business seemed to be working. She had had a few dozens customers and the majority had seemed a little too appreciative of her figure for her taste. She knew it wasn't all in her imagination because the twins had taken to check on her with regularity and glare the more demonstrative of the flirts down.

She was looking forward her afternoon alone in the flat, where nobody would make her nervous. While the attention was flattering, she could do without the gazes trying to undress her where she stood. The idea of the consequences it would bring, should one of them succeed, was making her shudder with cold dread. On the contrary, the twin's show of possession was heart-warming in the nicest way. Nevertheless, she resolved to quickly look up a way to spell her clothes resistant to all but her touch and magic. _Perhaps she should add the twin's._ The thought of the twins undressing her made her shiver. _Spelling clothes against __removal. It was probably paranoia. _He thought. _But, really, it has its uses, when they really are out to get you._

Lunch was the now familiar ritual of potions, banter and lot of great food. _I should probably look into the sport center if I don't want to become fat._ The prospect was vaguely horrifying and Harry pondered why for a minute. His conclusion scared him a little. She didn't want Fred and George to find him unattractive. _After all, they are bisexual. It means basically that everybody is competition. And as I'm neither a boy nor a girl, right now, it'll be real easy to lose them._ Instead of giving into the panic she could feel rising, she righted herself up and contemplating the boys themselves, she vowed to be everything they loved in both men and women and to never, ever, lose them completely.

In no time at all, lunch was over and Eleanor was alone in the deserted and encumbered flat. Doing a more in depth exploring of her new home (_okay, snooping around _), she came to the conclusion that something had to be done. The flat was already tiny and the twin's idea of order seemed to consist in shelving everything abandoned : clothes, interesting items, experiences, prank items in every state of progress...So the stuff nearest to her, the easiest to grab, was probably whatever they were working on. Chance was, the deeper on the shelves she would go, the older and odder the things she found would be. Considering Magic had a weird way to animate and sometimes give sentience to bizarre constructs when left to her own devices for too long, cleaning was suddenly becoming an exciting and chilling adventure. She took the whole heaps out and ordered them in piles. Clothes, to go the bedroom. Strange items, to the shelves for pranks material, etc.

Then, she cleaned everything by magic and the back of the shelves by hands, just to be sure that they wouldn't explode. As you could never be certain, with the Weasley Twins. Looking at all the strange experiments still lying on the floor at diverse stages of progress, she decided that they would never be completed if they stayed out of sight. So she thumbed trough the warding book from Flourish and Boot until she found a reference to a variation of the Bubble-Head Charm that could be used to isolate, encapsulate and contain unstable objects and potions. _That was probably invented with someone like the Twins in mind. It doesn't seem too hard to learn, let's see..._

In no time at all, space appeared around the loft and the living room desk was littered with list of everything she recognized during her cleaning spree. The clear globes with the experimental pranks were floating around the ceiling, safe and ready to be taken apart again. Eleanor was pretty proud of the effect of her new Charm. She was certain that the Twins would agree with her idea of decoration. That left her only the books from the Potter's Vault to thumb through. Which reminded her that she needed to find a way to hide them. _Right, and what else ? Where was the evil list when you needed it ? _

_There were some thing more urgent that the rest. Like research warding. The Potter's books, the notebooks, her leather purse, her clothes... and perhaps the flat and shop could benefit from a little protection too. Especially with the war and the enthusiastic interest the twins had taken in electricity-powered muggle technology. Right. That would best be left to professionals, except maybe her stuff. But perhaps she could make a list a things she wanted._

_The Fidelius on the flat would be great. They would have a real sanctuary. But the twins would have probably have difficulties to explain it to their family and it wouldn't be fool proof, either. And who would they choose as Secret Keeper ? _

_Something to screen the mail by the intent. To neutralize howlers. Wards to protect the building from explosions. Probably best to add one to protect from implosion, too. Something on the shop to warn us from the approach from someone with evil and harmful attempt. I wonder how precise a template we could set ? _

_Wards against animagus, spying, scrying..._She thought to Dumbledore and his various methods of control._ Right, wards to warn us of someone carrying the Dark Mark. Would be dead useful to help identify Death Eaters. Wards against Phoenix flashing. Sorry Fawkes. What else ? Something to seal certain parts, like a lock down, maybe. The Twins could probably come up with a lot of ingenious traps. And a back door. Not too vulnerable. Like a super personalized Portkey of the last Hope, only accessible by one person at a time from one precise spot to one location. _Contemplating the list of protections, Eleanor resolved to discuss it further with the Twins during the evening. They would undoubtedly have ideas. It was THEIR flat, after all.

Looking around herself, Eleanor reflected : _It would be great to extend the space, even with my new method to order. We could use new rooms. A library. A warded one against unauthorized intrusion. With secret compartments for the highly __sensitive secrets like the Potter's book or some of the Twin's pranks. A Dueling Room, warded against every possible damage to themselves and the flat. A real potion lab, warded to protect, conserve ingredient and potions, filter the fumes. Did the wizards ever heard of decontamination showers ? _

_Probably not, since they stopped with the Victorian Area and they were at the beginning of sterilizing their hospitals. Somewhere to really try pranks, a big room with space, shelves, tables and light. Somewhere to clean the clothes. I refuse to let Molly touch my wardrobe. Maybe they do this differently. How do the wizards do without the help of the House-Elves ? That remind me, I need to think of a way to convince Dobby to keep silent after my death. _Eleanor sighed, contemplating the lists in front of her. So many problems to solve. So many things to do. Where should she start ?

_Well, the extension of the space is probably best left to tonight's wards discussion. I shouldn't presume to change the Twin's entire life and home, without consulting them. And I need to look into the warding against magic for the TV and stereo system they want to install. Maybe, it would be possible to alter a ward to keep lightning inside instead of deflecting it ? I have no idea if this would be easier than to create one from scratch, but it could give ideas, at least. Aaaaaaaaaand, the monster-list is back. Damn ! It seems to multiply too._

_Right. No getting ahead of ourselves. Focusing on emergencies. That would be warding my stuff and research for the interview with Gringott's. Goblin's culture and history with wizards. If I could find a small book, a not too biased one...it would be great. Let's be realistic, there. Maybe there's something in the book about the Potter's legacy. Could be a place to start. Measure our resources. The Twins mentioned something the other day, also. Protection for the Heir against everything. Could be a chance to prevent Voldy, Dumbly and company from plucking my secret out of my head. _

_What about the twin's heads ? And others, non-wizarding being's magic ? Hedwig ? What about Dobby? He will probably be here looking for me as soon as the word of my death is known. Who know what he could do to "save" me from the situation ?_

The sight that escaped Eleanor then was huge enough to resume the width of the work still before her today. She jotted quickly the topics to research for today, leaving the wards and flat's extensions discussion for latter, to be discussed with the twins. Getting up, she locked the Floo, sealed the door to the shop and began to look through the stack of books she had inherited. The first thing to do was make another list. She couldn't stop the giggle at this thought. The Twins would probably tease her mercilessly, before trying to exorcise Hermione. As this was clearly a case of possession. Grabbing a new notebook, a purple one so dark it almost looked black unless the light shone directly on it, Eleanor made quick work of inventorying the stacks of books from the Potter vaults.

She came up with five of them, which concentrated on protection, warding and one called _Gold In The Depth : The Potters History With Gringott's Goblins. _He piled them in stacks on the table, before repeating the procedure with the books he had brought in Flourish and Blotts. _I should probably do the same with the books from the muggle bookstore._ And so, another half hour later, Eleanor was proudly contemplating her three new notebooks, her lists and severals impressive stacks of books.

Metaphorically rolling up her sleeves, she got to work. The warding of her clothes, bags and notes was pretty straightforward. She found the incantations without problems. The application was a little more difficult. The Bottom-less and Permanent Featherweight charms were especially delicate and trying. Eleanor was happy for the practice the cosmetics spells had gotten her. She would probably have needed much more time to succeed without the fine tuned control of her magic that those spells had trained into her. She promptly contemplated her bag and tested it with the many books at her disposition. _Perfect ! _She thought proudly. _Now, to stabilize the charms and protections, they need to be attached to a part of the object or to another item linked to it. _After consideration, she choose to tie her magics to the silver wrought clasps of her bag. They were numerous enough to allow her all the protections she wanted. It took her the better part of another hour to finish protecting it. After that, protecting her notebooks, clothes and heirlooms was a question of endurance.

She charmed the Potter's books to look like muggle poetry ones. There were handy spells to key the charms to passwords and magical signature. She spared a thought for her father who had probably found the tools to craft the Marauder's Map in the same book. She vowed Notice-me-Not spells into the protections of all the paper work. Succumbing to the impulse of following the lead of her father and friends, she added a curse for the curious soul who would have triumphed of the other protections, she linked it to a proximity alarm.

Eleanor sat back, satisfied. _That was good work, albeit tiring_._ Now, what to do ? I don't feel up to concentrating on Occlumency, or complex Mind Magic, or even the research on Goblins. What other urgent topic is there to address ? There's ton of research to do...plans to make...allies to contact...Yes ! That's it ! I need powerful allies, totally devoted to us. Someone magically strong, who would be overlooked normally but that could be trusted implicitly. Well, there is Dobby. ...If he consent to listen to us ; to be bonded to us. I really don't need him trying to save my life. I probably wouldn't survive another attempt ! _She shivered in dread. Harry always had had a big imagination, and sometime it was more a curse than an advantage. _Let's do this, then._

"Dobby!" Harry hadn't finished to speak that a big creaking sound was heard and there was suddenly an elf before her, his colorful clothing almost hiding him. Before Dobby could begin to gush, Harry had already begun to speak. She had resolved to be very firm with Dobby, but to let him choose after she explained everything.

"Dobby. I need you to listen to me and to let me explain everything before you do anything, okay ?" She waited just long enough to see him nod and went on. "I escape my relatives, against the orders of professor Dumbledore because they were very bad to me. They beat me and didn't give anything to eat. So I decided to disappear and to officially kill Harry Potter. Don't be sad, please !" Dobby's eyes were filling with tears. "I won't really be dead. I will be hiding and leaving as a girl from now on. My new name is Eleanor Sade. The Weasley Twins were the only one to help me and the only one I trust. Can you help me ?"

Dobby was obviously deeply moved. He was wringing his hands and trying to stop his tears from falling. It was suddenly to much and he wailed. "Is Master Harry Potter Sir alright ? Is Master Harry Potter Sir hurting ? What can Dobby do ? Dobby will do anything for Master Harry Potter Sir !" He had flung himself into Eleanor legs and proceeded to hug them to death. Touched that there was a being so attached to him without calculation and still a little ill-at-ease with the adoration Dobby had for him, Eleanor crouched down and hugged Dobby, comforting him.

It took them a while, but finally there were both calm enough. Eleanor explained. "I didn't want you to be sad when you heard that Harry Potter died. So I needed to tell you. But you can't speak of it to anyone. Nobody must know that I'm still alive. Do you swear to me Dobby ? Can I trust you not to betray me ? I have plans but I can't do anything with people trying to use me for their own projects."

Dobby stayed silent for a moment. Then he jumped from the sofa Eleanor had sat him in and turned to her with a very resolute air. "Dobby wants to help Master Harry Potter Sir ! Dobby wants to become Master Harry Potter Sir's Elf ! It's just... Dobby and Winky...they bonded, Master Harry Potter Sir. Dobby can't let Winky alone in Hogwart with bad Master Dumbly-dor!"

"Congratulation, Dobby ! Well, I understand your dilemma. Why don't you bring Winky here and explain ? I would be very honored to two Elven friends to help me!" That declaration got him a hug and a proclamation of being the Greatest Wizard Ever. Eleanor sighed in relief and let her head fall on the back of the sofa. _It was probably better that way. Bound House-Elves were notoriously loyal to their Masters and only their Masters. With a bit of luck, Dobby exuberance was cheering up Winky and Winky calmness of temper would temper Dobby a bit. _Eleanor wasn't worried. _Dobby will be excellent to help the Twins with the shop and the pranks. I'm quite sure we will make quick progress. And Winky could help me with the flat maintenance and the rest. I hope the Twins won't mind the new additions... Now, where could they live ? And how to justify their presence ?_

The young wizard remained lost in his thoughts until the return of the Elves. During Dobby's explanations to Winky, she took out her notebook and noted the official reason of the presence of Dobby and Winky, hoping her excuse was good enough to avoid suspicion. Winky seemed very eager to accept a bond. It was obvious that she missed having a Family.

"Okay, before anything else, can you bond yourself to more than one person ? Because my family is actually Fred and George Weasley. So I'd like you to be bonded to them too, but not to the rest of their blood family. Is that possible ? And would you agree to things being that way ?"

"Yes. We bond ourselves to Family inside one House. And we have no problems with the Red Masters who helped Master Harry Potter Sir."

"Brilliant! Then I'd like to add a couples of conditions, and, if you still agree, we we'll proceed, okay? I'd like you to have money and time for yourself, spend it on somethings that makes you happy, whatever that is. I'd like you to go regularly see a Healer, just to be sure you're in good health. I want you to always speak your mind in our presence, even if we don't ask directly for your opinion. Is that good so far? Okay, just a couple more orders. I want you to wear uniforms of your choices, not rags. You represent our family, so please, do us proud. Then, and that's the most important couple of orders. You are to never hurt yourself, even if someone ask you to. Do you understand? Do you agree ?"

The elves nodded. "And finally, you must never communicate to anyone or anything that I am Harry Potter. My new name is Eleanor Sade, I am a muggleborn orphan and a friend of the Twins. I work for them to be able to take my Newts and Owls and I study at home. Nobody must know the truth." Eleanor got another solemn nod. "Let's proceed with the bonding, then."

The young wizard didn't do anything but he suddenly felt two very powerful magics reach for his. Understanding the bond worked with an exchange of magics, she let go. She was awed at the feel of the strength and purity of Dobby and Winky 's magics. They truly were magic, instead of being part of it as the witches and wizards were.

"Whoa !" She took a few minutes to appreciate the feeling and center herself before declaring. "I am honored to have friends such as yours in my Family. I hope you'll remember what we agreed on and consider them the only orders I'll give you. We'll say that you decided to help Fred and George because they were good friends of Harry Potter and that, when you heard of his death, you decided to become theirs. Is that okay ? Did I forget something ?"

That apparently was all the Elves needed to begin a discussion. Eleanor wanted to be certain they would be happy with them, so she took great pain to know what they loved to do and needed to have. She created a small place just for them, promising herself to make them real living quarters when they would enlarge the place. It was decided that Dobby would prefer helping Fred and George with the shop, stocking shelves, organizing their experiment and trying to make archives of sorts. The small House-Elf seemed particularly enthusiastic to participate to the actual pranks. Eleanor advised him to ask the Twins and to try to avoid Ron a bit, at least until the word of Harry's death spread.

Winky, it seemed, loved to sew and cook. Harry remembered the devotion she had shown her previous masters. She would take care of them all. Harry was certain she would go above board, hopefully not as badly as Dobby... Eleanor asked her to make uniforms for herself and Dobby, first. She wanted to see if Winky fashion sense was as flamboyant as Dobby 's before she let her sew clothes for them all. _Well, I wouldn't be caught dead in Dobby' s clothes but the Twins kinda like flamboyant. On the other hand, they never really admired Dumbledore fashion sense. Well, nothing to do but wait and see. What else ? Oh ! I know!_

_"_I remember Dobby protecting me from his previous master, he was really courageous and strong. I wanted to know : Would one of you know how to protect our minds from unwanted intrusion ? Do the House-Elves have ways to protects theirs masters and theirs master's possessions ?" Dobby was already jumping up and down with enthusiasm and Winky was more quietly beaming and nodding. Eleanor listened with fascination to the explication of her new friends.

It seemed that House-Elves were as strong as their House or Masters needed them to be. They were strengthened when a trusting relationship was established. They were strengthened when the need was great. So it seemed that the two Elves were able to weave a protection around the minds of their masters. In fact, if the masters lensed them a small part of their magic and trusted them enough to basically allow them access to their minds, they could act as constant unbreakable occlumency shields. Eleanor supposed that no wizard would think to ask their House-Elf for mind protection and those who asked didn't trust and respect them enough to let them this kind of access.

"But what if there's a legilimency attack ? Won't you be hurt ? And would we be able to communicate by thoughts if you have access to my mind ?" Those question made Dobby and Winky laugh. It was a strange sight. _Probably because that didn't happen often enough, It's a shame._

_"_We won't know your thoughts Mistress Eleanor. And Mistress Eleanor won't know ours. And We won't hurt. There is no wizard strong enough to resist the will of two bonded House-Elves protecting their master."

"Even if the wizards are the most powerful wizards alive ? Or your previous masters ? I don't want you to be hurt. Or exhausted. Would it be tiring ? Would it be better if you were more to protect ?" Eleanor couldn't help herself. She loved Dobby, even if she was ill-at-ease at best in his presence. And she felt she owed Winky for the many trials they went trough because of Crouch and the Deatheaters. But the Elves were peremptory. The protection would be stronger, the more Elves there was, but it wouldn't tire or hurt them. All attacks were simply reflected back or avoided like the mind attacked suddenly didn't exist.

By the time Eleanor was convinced that the Elves could protect three minds without exhaustion, Dobby and Winky had to go back to their duties in Hogwart, but they agreed to come back later in the evening to meet the Twin, bond to them and weave the famous protections. Eleanor spend the rest of the afternoon reading _Gold In The Depth : The Potters History With Gringott's Goblins _to prepare herself better. The book was more of a chronic with the observations and history of the family with the various Goblins clans that succeeded themselves at the head of the Bank . It was very precious, not only because of the numerous advices and recommendations on Goblin's etiquette and values, but because it was proof that he had a family. He understood a bit better the pride Malefoy had of his name. The end of the book even had writing in his father, grandfather and great-grandfather 's hands !

Eleanor rose slowly through her concentration as noise from the staircase began louder. Apparently, the Twins had closed the shop for today. She took the time to note her observations, decisions, and the advices she thought she would need most in her dealing with Gringotts, before greeting them. Suddenly, she could remember what happened this morning with crystal clarity. She felt a bit shy.

However, the Twins were as demonstrative as ever and plopped down on the sofa on either side of her, kissing her forehead and bare shoulder before snuggling and retelling their day. The adaptation of the muggle technology seemed as complicated as Eleanor had feared. She suggested they took it slow.

"Because, it would probably be easier for the pureblood to begin with something smaller and more familiar. Like the fountain pain, for example. There's so many ways to make them more personal and adapt them to your costumers. You could mix what's already been done on quills. Maybe make a crossover between them, like a metallic quill that you never have to sharpen or ink. What do you think ?" Eleanor went on, still a little shy and unsure of her reception. They were the master Jokers here, after all. "If you want to adapt muggle technology, you could begin with a sort of cell-phone. I still have the mirror Sirius gave me to contact him. It would only work between two or three mirrors, meaning you can only contact one person, but they seem to look like the new mobiles. It should be enough to fool muggle. The muggleborn families would love them and your dad could help you make them legal. Plus, it could be useful to aurors or healers. ... Well, I thought so anyway... What do you say ?"

"You definitely are a godsend, little Love !...I would prepare the market for the biggest things like TV or music centers..." Eleanor found herself thoroughly kissed by Fred then George. Her body was feeling strange again. She was shivering pretty badly. It was too quick. _Well, not too quick, but there's so many questions... I don't know how to act with them, when they're like that. I can't think !_

I was probably obvious to the Twins that she needed time to adapt. After all, her life had been pretty chaotic as of late. They snuggled closer to her and petted her hair, asking about her day. She explained the warding of her stuff. The Twins approved fiercely of her clothes warding. They borrowed the incantations to develop and better : they wanted their pranking notebook to be inviolable ! The discussion on warding led them to the protection of the flat and shop and they spent a while listing what needed to be done. Eleanor was happy to see them consenting immediately to put flat under the Fidelius. They obviously valued their privacy even from their family. Harry spared a brief thought to Molly mother-henning and shuddered. No wonder !

It would make things a bit easier for her as well if the flat could be her safe heaven. The discussion took them to the kitchen where Eleanor began to cook, listening to the Twins with half an hear. She interrupted a passionated plea for exploding pranks embedded in the wards, remarking that, if they didn't know how to do that, they could discuss it with the warder, especially if they asked their brother Bill. "It could be an excellent ways to ask for a lesson in warding. You could use that for the muggle technology. It wouldn't arouse suspicion from your brother."

The suggestion won her another kissing session. The time it took her to calm down was spent, listening to the Twin's debates and trying to come up with a way to confess that she had hired house-elves for them. She didn't find anything and blurted it while the brothers were both chewing their mashed potatoes. There was silence for a while longer, during which she explained that Dobby and Winky could help them with the shop and flat maintenance and, most importantly, could protect their minds from any and all intrusions.

The big relieved smiles on Fred and George's faces told her better than anything else that they'd been worried to about the possibility of their plan failing as soon as they saw Dumbledore. They called the House-Elves immediately. The bonding and shield waving took a few minutes and Eleanor spent the rest of the evening in the arms and lap of the brother, basking in their attention and teasing.

**A.N. I just wanted to say that I'll probably try to finish Endless before going back to writing Twin Future. I can't just go back and forth between plots and language, I'll mix my words. But I swear I'll finish it. The structure of the story is already constructed till the chapter 13 and I have ideas for the rest. So rest easy and see you soon !**

**PS : I wanted to thank all the readers who took the time to review, you push me to go forward with this, and to ignore my doubts and reticence. Critic depress me but they won't stop me from writing what I damn well please (I'll correct my grammar but that's about it. ) you've been warned!**


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